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Ukraine Crisis: Government Dismisses Self-Rule Referendums ‘A Farce’

Pro-Russian rebels declared a landslide victory in Sunday’s referendum held in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions with Pro-Russian separatists in the region said to have … Continue reading Ukraine Crisis: Government Dismisses Self-Rule Referendums ‘A Farce’


Ukraine referendumPro-Russian rebels declared a landslide victory in Sunday’s referendum held in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions with Pro-Russian separatists in the region said to have voted overwhelmingly in favour of the “self-rule”.

The Ukrainian government, however, have dismissed the vote as a farce and the European Union has criticized the referendum.

The British Foreign Secretary, William Hague said: “These votes, these attempts at referendums have zero credibility in the eyes of the world. They are illegal by anybody’s standards, they don’t meet any standard, not a single standard of objectivity, transparency, fairness or being properly conducted as a public referendum or election and indeed the people organizing them didn’t even pretend to meet any of those standards. The important thing is that the Ukrainian elections go ahead on the 25th of May.”

However, a Luhansk election commission official said residents overwhelmingly supported the referendum.

Like officials in the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”, a spokesman for the Luhansk referendum said that more than 90 percent of residents voted in favour.

Russia said on Monday it respected the outcome of the referendum and that the results should be implemented peacefully.

The European Union meanwhile is set to step up pressure on Russia by taking a first cautious step towards extending sanctions to companies, as well as people, linked to Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.