Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine say the acting prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic has won an election that Kyiv and the West have made clear they will not recognize.
Election officials said Monday that Alexander Zakharchenko received about 79 percent of Sunday's vote as part of the elections for leadership and legislative bodies in areas the separatists control in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States have called the rebel vote illegal, saying it violates Ukraine's constitution and the cease-fire agreement reached September 5 between separatists and Ukraine's government.
The EU's new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said Sunday that the bloc would not recognize the vote, which she called "a new obstacle on the path towards peace in Ukraine."