BRUSSELS, November 4 (RIA Novosti) — NATO considers elections, that took place in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR) on November 2, to be contradictory to the Minsk agreements, the organization's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated Tuesday.
"In Ukraine we had the so-called elections by armed separatists in the eastern parts of Ukraine, and those elections run directly counter to the Minsk agreements, and NATO allies will not recognize those so-called elections," Stoltenberg told the reporters after the meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
The crisis in Ukraine escalated in mid-April, when Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence supporters in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. As a result the territories went on to declare themselves sovereign states.
The law on self-administration in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, also known as the Donbas, was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on September 16, following the September 5 ceasefire agreement in Minsk between Kiev and pro-independence forces. According to the deal, Kiev was obliged to ensure early local elections in the two breakaway regions.
Nevertheless, on November 2, DPR and LPR held elections for the heads of local governments and representatives of legislative bodies.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russia would respect the choice of the people in the south-eastern regions of Ukraine.
