KIEV, Ukraine — Pro- Russian insurgents are likely to prevent voting Sunday in half or more of the election districts in the embattled east, Ukrainian officials say.
Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovyi said Saturday that police are ready to ensure order and security at polling stations in just nine of 34 districts in the east.
Earlier, Volodymyr Hrinyak, chief of the public security department at the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said 17 out of 34 district election commissions in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not operating because their offices have either been seized or blocked by armed men. Hrinyak’s update was reported by the Interfax news agency.
The insurgents have controlled parts of Ukraine for weeks. After their declaration of independence this month, they pledged to derail the vote which they regard as an election in “a neighboring country.”
They remain defiant, although Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that he is prepared to work with the election winner.
On Saturday, Putin again accused the West of ignoring Russia’s interests in Ukraine, in particular by leaving open the possibility that the country could one day join NATO.
Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in a televised address Friday that the election will be the first step to stabilize the east.
“I would like to assure all my compatriots in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions who will be prevented from going to the polling stations by the war waged on Ukraine: The criminals don’t have much time left to terrorize our land,” he said.
