KIEV, Ukraine—Moscow offered warm support Monday for rebel-organized elections in eastern Ukraine — an endorsement that could only serve to keep the West’s sanctions against Russia in place.
Pro-Russian separatist authorities said Sunday’s vote, which saw two rebel leaders easily reconfirmed in their roles, gives them a powerful mandate to slip further from Ukrainian rule.
Plans for the election had been condemned by the European Union and the United States, which said it violated Ukrainian law and undermined a 2-month-old cease-fire deal that has existed only on paper.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry indicated in a statement, however, that it would refrain from supporting outright …read more
Source: The Epoch Times
