Putin vows to respect Ukraine vote
SAIN E E SBU G A Ukraine’s interim leaders were set to join prayers for peace yesterday on the eve of a crucial presidential vote that ussian resident ladimir utin has pledged to respect.
utin has in the past given only grudging backing to the election but on riday said he was prepared to work with whoever was elected Ukraine’s president in today’s vote.
e understand that the people of Ukraine want their country to emerge from this crisis,” he said at an economic forum in his home town of Saint etersburg. e will treat their choice with respect. e are today working with those people who control the government and after the election we will of course work with the newly elected authorities.”
he ussian leader warned that Ukraine had descended into all-out civil war after a bloody upsurge in separatist violence.
Seven people were killed in fighting between rebels and defense forces outside the eastern industrial hub of onetsk on riday, a day after the deaths of soldiers in the heaviest loss for the Ukraine military since the conflict began.
Interim resident Oleksandr urchynov called on voters to turn out in force today to prevent Ukraine from being turned into a part of a post-Soviet empire” by a weekslong insurgency that Kiev and the est say is being orchestrated by ussia.
he country’s leaders were to take part in prayers for peace in Kiev at p.m. GM yesterday. Other prayers were e - pected to take place elsewhere.
he authorities are mobili ing tens of thousands of police and volunteers to try to ensure security on polling day, although the pro- ussian separatists are threatening to disrupt the vote in areas under their control in the industrial east.
oday’s vote is seen as the most crucial since Ukraine’s independence in , with the country facing the threat of partition and teetering on the brink of economic collapse.