KIEV, Ukraine

Pro-Russian separatists have begun voting in eastern Ukraine in a controversial election process that attempts to install separate regional leaderships in defiance of the Kiev government.

The elections for the new parliaments and leaderships began Sunday in self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, where 364 and 95 ballot boxes were set up respectively.

The voting started at 8.00 a.m. local time and was expected to remain open till 8 p.m. local time.

Voters aged 16 and above are considered eligible to cast a ballot in Donetsk, while the voting age is 18 and above in Luhansk.

According to Ukrainian officials, there are more than three million eligible voters in the country’s east. It remains unclear how many out of them would exercise their right to vote.

Alexander Zakharchenko, Prime Minister of Donetsk People's Republic and a potential candidate for presidential office, cast his vote at a school in Donetsk, an Anadolu Agency correspondent reported from Donetsk.    

"Following the elections, the Kiev government will recognize us and return our occupied lands," Zakharchenko told reporters after casting his vote.

Luhansk’s Prime Minister Igor Plotnitsky voted in a polling station at a theatre building. "I voted for the freedom of our people and the establishment of peace," he said.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko said the "so-called" elections in eastern Ukraine would endanger the ceasefire process that was agreed between the government and the separatists in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in September.

 The Minsk agreement was signed after extensive talks between Russia, Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or the OSCE.

The U.S. had said Saturday it would not recognize the elections. "If held, these ‘elections’ would contravene Ukraine’s constitution and laws and the Sept. 5 Minsk Protocol," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said ahead of the elections.

On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement last week that Russia would recognize the elections' results. "The elections would pave way for a constructive dialogue for the situation in the east."

The elections organized by the separatists in eastern Ukraine come only a week after the Ukrainian government in Kiev organized its own official general elections on October 26. Millions of Ukrainian voters had chosen from 6,627 candidates and 29 parties for the 450-seated Parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada in Ukraine.

The stalemate in Ukraine between the government and the separatists has left more than 4,000 dead and over 9,000 others wounded since April, a month before Russia annexed Crimea in March following a referendum vote held in the peninsula that was not recognized by Ukraine or the West.

The crisis was triggered in November 2013 when ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych announced the abandonment of a trade agreement with the EU and chose to pursue closer ties with Russia.

www.aa.com.tr/en