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Russia says east Ukraine rebel leaders have "mandate" to negotiate with Kiev- agency

World News

03-11-2014 | 05:13

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Russia says east Ukraine rebel leaders have "mandate" to negotiate with Kiev- agency

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Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Monday that newly elected leaders in eastern Ukrainian separatist regions have a "mandate" to negotiate with Kiev, Interfax news agency reported.

"The elected representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk regions obtained a mandate to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities to solve problems... via a political dialogue," he said.

Interfax reported him as echoing a statement from the Foreign Ministry that Russia will "respect the will of the people of southeast" Ukraine.

This comes after Pro-Russian separatist Alexander Zakharchenko easily won a rebel leadership election in eastern Ukraine, the vote's organizers said on Monday.

"The central election commission deems Alexander Zakharchenko to be the elected head of the Donetsk People's Republic," an election official, Roman Lyagin, told journalists in Donetsk, the separatists' political and military stronghold in eastern Ukraine.

Sunday's vote, which was denounced by President Petro Poroshenko as a "farce (conducted) under the barrels of tanks and machine guns", has worsened a standoff between Russia and the West over the future of Ukraine.

REUTERS

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