MOSCOW, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – Over 96 percent of voters in Ukraine's easternmost Luhansk region supported the independence of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic during a referendum on Sunday, Electoral Committee Head Aleksandr Malykhin said Monday.
“The residents of Luhansk Region have supported the independence of the Luhansk People’s Republic, and 96.2 percent of the residents have supported the act on state sovereignty,” Malykhin said.
On Sunday, residents in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions went to the polls in a self-rule referendum, with ballots in Ukrainian and Russian asking whether voters supported the acts of state self-determination of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
In the Luhansk region, voter turnout was over 79 percent, with the turnout in the regional capital exceeding 76 percent.
Central Election Committee Chairman Roman Lyasin said the results of the Luhansk referendum were still pending, but photo and video footage from the area showed long queues in front of makeshift polling stations, with exit polls claiming the independence bid was on its way to a resounding victory.
Russia said in its statement Monday it respected the will of the people in Ukraine’s southeast and urged the regime in Kiev to do the same. The Kremlin said it condemned "the use of force including military hardware against peaceful citizens which led to deaths" during the referendums.
