WARSAW, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) will not be able to send international monitors to attend the elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as OCSE can only send monitors to its member countries, the OSCE Bureau for democratic Institutions and Human Rights spokesperson Thomas Rymer told RIA Novosti on Monday.
Rymer said that according to the procedure, OSCE must get an official invitation from country’s authorities. The self-proclaimed republics of eastern Ukraine are not OSCE members, so the organization is not able to send international monitors there.
The election of the heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics will be held on November 2, the central election commissions of LPR and DPR confirmed last week.
Residents of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics, refusing to recognize the new Kiev authorities that came to power in Ukraine after the February coup. Republics declared their sovereignty, based on the results of the referendums held in May.
Kiev does not recognize Luhansk and Donetsk People’s republics. In April Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern regions of the country, which claimed lives of over 3,700 people and left 8,800 injured.
