Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says that Moscow "understood" and considered "necessary" the decision of Ukrainian separatists to hold separate local elections in spite of the Minsk agreements.
She claimed that this move is caused by alleged "violations of Minsk agreements by official Kyiv" and their "imitating to abide by them."
According to Zakharova, such "violations and imitations" happened when Kyiv took "unilateral steps in the issue of political regulation without direct dialogue between Kyiv and Donbas."
Leaders of the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic announced their local election date to be October 18, while the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said its vote might take place on November 1.
Ukraine, however, scheduled its local elections on October 25.
The deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma Sergei Zheleznyak, whom Ukraine has included on its expanded list of sanctions, called the new document a translation of Western sanctions.
The Kyiv authorities took time translating Western lists from the English language to Ukrainian. Perhaps, the auto-translator was too low on gas to work properly. It's like that there with everything,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.
