MOSCOW, October 29 (RIA Novosti) – The elections in eastern Ukraine are legitimate and could help find a compromise between the country's conflicting sides, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.
"There is a chance today to use the November 2 elections not for thoughtless and groundless escalation of the confrontation, but for the shift of the situation to a more constructive course of a mutually respectful dialogue, a search for compromise on the basis of legal interests of all the sides in the Ukrainian conflict, which is what the documents signed in Minsk stipulate," the statement says.
The statement adds that the Minsk agreements confirm the legality of the elections, planned to be held in eastern Ukraine on November 2.
"There is an impression that all arguments against the November 2 elections aim to postpone them as much as possible, hoping, as it seems, that with the cold weather the problems of the local population will aggravate, which will affect the mood and the turnout of the voters," the statement says.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the upcoming elections in DPR and LPR would threaten the region’s peace process.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the cancellation of planned elections in southeastern Ukraine.
The DPR and the LPR want full independence for the whole territory within the borders of the respective administrative entities in Ukraine.
This claim for autonomy comes amid the crisis that escalated in Ukraine in mid-April, when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the country’s southeastern regions, who refused to recognize the new government, which came to power as a result of the February coup.
