UNITED NATIONS, November 3 (RIA Novosti) — Elections in self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are "unhelpful", Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq told RIA Novosti Sunday.
"The Secretary General issued the statement few days ago about the unhelpfulness of these particular elections. At this stage this comment stands," Farhan Haq told RIA Novosti.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, reported earlier that the Secretary-General did not support the elections in Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics as running counter to Minsk agreements.
On Sunday, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics held elections of the heads of the local governments and representatives of the legislative bodies.
A total of 100 observers from a number of European countries and the United States arrived in the region to monitor the elections.
The authorities in the European Union and the United States said the elections would come against the Minsk agreement on the regulation of the crisis in Donbas, and that the international community would not recognize them.
Russia, on the contrary, has expressed its intention to recognize the elections and emphasized that not recognizing would run counter to the Minsk protocol and undermine efforts to reach peace settlement in the country.
