The election commission members count ballots at polling station in Donetsk, in the rebel-held area of eastern Ukraine on November 11, 2018, as Kremlin-backed separatists choose their new leaders despite Western calls on Moscow not to sabotage peace talks
Washington: The United States on Monday dismissed leadership elections in separatist-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine as a "sham" one day after voters cast their ballots.
"The United States joins our European Allies and partners in condemning the November 11 sham 'elections' in Russia-controlled eastern Ukraine," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
"Yesterday's illegitimate processes were an attempt by Moscow to institutionalize its Donbas proxies, the so-called 'Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.'"
The statement came a day after French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel branded the vote "illegal and illegitimate" in a joint statement after meeting Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko on the sidelines of World War I commemorations.
The White House has been vocal in its rejection of Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, and says sanctions will remain in place until the move is reversed.
"These entities have no place within the Minsk agreements or within Ukraine's constitutional government, and they should be dismantled along with the illegal armed formations," Nauert added.
"If Russia calculated the November 11 illegal 'elections' would lead to international respect for its proxies, the international reaction proves it was mistaken."
She said the US and European Union had spoken "with one voice" against Sunday's "violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
In early 2014, with areas of Ukraine falling into chaos in the wake of a Kiev street revolt that ousted a pro-Russian president, Russian troops -- in unmarked uniforms -- seized Crimea.
A referendum was called in the territory, which has a large Russian-speaking population, and on March 18, 2014 Russia formally annexed it to the Russian federation.
Ukraine, which is also facing a pro-Russian rebellion on its mainland in the Donbas region, furiously opposed this breach of its sovereignty -- with stern Western backing.
