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Russia has announced it will recognise separatist polls in Ukraine next weekend, fuelling tensions with the country's newly elected pro-Western leaders as they negotiate on forming a coalition government.
The rebel elections on Sunday should "go ahead as agreed", Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"We will of course recognise the results," he told Russia's Izvestia newspaper.
Moscow rejects accusations in Kiev and Western capitals that it is behind the armed uprising in Ukraine's industrial heartland in which some 3,700 people have been killed since April.
However, the decision to lend legitimacy to the rebels' leadership vote is one of its most overt acts of support so far for the two unrecognised "people's republics" that insurgents are carving out in eastern Ukraine.
Senior Ukrainian foreign ministry official Dmytro Kuleba said Moscow was violating the peace deal it had itself sponsored in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on September 5, that ushered in an uneasy truce.
"Russia's intentions directly contradict the Minsk accord, undermine the agreed process on de-escalation and peaceful resolution, and continue to weaken trust in it [Russia] as a reliable international partner," Kuleba said, calling the separatists "terrorists".
President Petro Poroshenko's spokesman also said the rebel polls "put the entire peace process under threat".
The row followed an increase in ceasefire violations in the wake of Sunday's parliamentary election, in which Poroshenko's allies won a convincing victory.
Artillery explosions and small- arms fire could be heard in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk into the early hours of yesterday. Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two soldiers had been killed and two others wounded in fighting in the previous 24 hours.
Troops were forced to retreat from an isolated checkpoint near Lugansk after fighting in which 10 servicemen have died since September. Lysenko added: "We are currently identifying bodies and searching for missing soldiers." The situation in Ukraine was up for discussion yesterday in Brussels, where European Union states were reviewing punishing sanctions imposed on Russia. The EU sanctions, coupled with similar measures by the United States, are meant to pressure Russia over its backing for the rebels and its annexation of Ukraine's Black Sea province of Crimea in March.


Russia to recognise leadership votes in Ukraine's rebel-held east

Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk region. Photo: AFP

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Decision to lend legitimacy to leadership vote one of Moscow's most overt acts of support yet


Russia has announced it will recognise separatist polls in Ukraine next weekend, fuelling tensions with the country's newly elected pro-Western leaders as they negotiate on forming a coalition government.
