Pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine

Donetsk and Lugansk regions hold elections

DONETSK -- Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) Aleksandr Zakharchenko has declared victory in Sunday's elections....

Alexandеr Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitskiy, leaders of the Donetsk ad Luhansk "People's Republics" in Ukraine's east, are to remain leaders of the rebel-controlled entities after the regions held presidential and general elections Sunday.

Partial count cited by Russian and Ukrainian media outlets suggest they get over 70 and 60 percent, respectively.

The rebel Luhansk and Donetsk republics in eastern Ukraine are holding leadership elections on Sunday.

The candidates in the vote, which takes place a week after the official parliamentary elections in Ukraine in which the residents in eastern Ukraine didn't have the chance to vote, are practically unknown and lack opposition.

Separatists in eastern Ukraine voted Sunday in controversial, Russian-backed leadership elections that Kiev and the West have refused to recognize and which threatened to deepen an international crisis over the conflict.
      

Russia sends another humanitarian convoy to Ukraine

MOSCOW -- The Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations has announced that it plans to send a new convoy of humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine.

A convoy of 50 trucks should depart from the town of Noginsk at 15:00 Moscow time, the ministry said, quoted by the TASS agency.

Russia is sending a fourth "humanitarian aid" convoy to rebel eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, reports RBK.

According to an announcement of Russia's Ministry of Civil Defence the 50-truck column with humanitarian aid for the Donetsk and Luhansk population will leave for Ukraine on Tuesday.

Russia plans to recognise elections being organised next weekend by rebels in east Ukraine in defiance of the government in Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview on Oct. 28.
      

Ukraine is holding on Sunday early elections for a new Parliament called by President Petro Poroshenko.

About 33 million Ukrainians are eligible to vote in 32 000 polling stations across the country.

A total of 29 political entities are running for seats in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament.