Latest from our news desk on the OSCE assessment of the local elections:
The European monitoring mission that observed Ukraine's October 25 local elections has said the polls were "competitive and well-organized overall" but stressed there is still "need for further reform."
Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on October 26 noted that the conflict between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine had prevented more than 5 million voters from participating.
"Yesterday's local elections were the starting points of decentralization and territorial reform in Ukriane," said Gudrun Mosler-Tornstrom, head of a delegation from the Council of Europe.
Andrej Plenkovic, head of the European Parliament delegation, said "the elections were conducted largely in line with internationally recognized standards."
Final results are not expected to be announced before October 28, and run-off ballots are expected to be necessary in mid-November to determine the mayors of several cities.
Separatists say they've expelled 2 monitors, OSCE denies it:
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine say they have expelled two OSCE monitors, but the organization denies the allegation.
A separatist leader in the Luhansk region, Vasily Nikitin, said on October 26 that the two monitors had "violated the Minsk agreements" aimed at ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
An unidentified official in Luhansk said the monitors were asked to leave last week.
But the deputy chief of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission, Alexander Hug, said in a statement that "no monitors have been removed" from the Luhansk region.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the cease-fire deal signed in Minsk in February and for coordinating peace talks between Kyiv and both Moscow and Ukraine's separatists.
Fighting between government forces and separatists has killed more than 7,900 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (AFP, Interfax)