The Ukrainian army took control of election committees in Luhansk Oblast. Oleksandr Chernenko, chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, has written this on his Facebook page.
“Today a military unit took a building where the district election commission #114 is situated in Bilovodsk under their control. Ukrainian election committee observers witnessed this incident. Troops in camouflage and helmets arrived on a truck. The locals somehow confused them with Russian soldiers. The district election commission chairman Volodymyr Nesmeianov told us that the Ukrainian military took the building under their control,” wrote Chernenko on Thursday, May 15.
If Moscow will hinder presidential elections in Ukraine, the West promises to introduce sanctions against Russia’s economic sectors. US Secretary of State John Kerry laid out some suggestions of the American vision of the next round of sanctions against Russia to EU foreign ministers on Thursday. These sanctions may apply to large sectors of the Russian economy, including the gas and coal sectors.
The European Union together with the United States and the countries of the Big Seven had declared that they will add a third phase of sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian on top of the two phases already imposed in the case if Moscow further disrupts presidential elections in Ukraine or goes for a direct invasion Ukraine’s mainland.
The Western countries declare the importance of presidential elections in Ukraine and express their support. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the current conflict in Eastern Ukrainemakes it impossible to conduct fair and transparent elections.
Translated by Alya Shandra
