Novorossiya leaders sworn in

by our European Affairs correspondent

TWO LEADERS of the anti-fascist resistance in eastern Ukraine have been elected to head the breakaway republics of Novorossiya following elections that were dismissed as a “farce” by Kiev regime president Petro Poroshenko and branded “illegal and illegitimate” by his masters in the Washington and Berlin. But the Kremlin says they will recognise the results of the poll though the Russians have not recognised the formal independence of the two Donbas republics.

At the front the partisans had mobilised to stave off any attempt by the Kiev regime to disrupt the elections. But the expected offensive by the Ukrainian army did not happen and it was relatively quiet on election day.

The regular shelling of Donetsk and the clashes with Kiev regime forces and the fascist militias along the ceasefire lines only intensified after the results were declared. Though there’s little doubt that this static warfare will continue through the long Donbas winter many expect the Kiev regime to launch another big push in the spring.

Alexander Zakharchenko, a former mining electrician, won the presidential election in the Donetsk People’s Republic with 79 per cent of the vote. Igor Plotnisky, a former officer in the Soviet Army won the presidency of the Lugansk People’s Republic in a similar poll, with more than 63 per cent of the vote.

Zakharchenko was supported by the newly formed Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was unable to run in the presidential and parliamentary elections because “it made too many mistakes” in its submitted documents.

Kiev regime leader Poroshenko predictably responded with his usual repertoire of bluster and threats saying that the vote had undermined the entire Minsk peace agreement and the entire peace process in eastern Ukraine. Poroshenko, the richest man in Ukraine with a fortune estimated at €1.3 billion, said his government would never recognise the results of the Donbas elections.

In retaliation he has threatened to tear up his own regime’s promise to recognise the “special status” of the Donbas though this would be honoured if the “criminals that crowned themselves” agreed to “reconsider the results of the 2nd November election”.

Meanwhile the fascist militias are strengthening their grip on the Ukrainian capital. Vadim Troyan, a fascist militia leader has been appointed head of the Kiev police. Troyan is the deputy commander of the Nazi Azov Brigade and a member of “Patriot of Ukraine”, the paramilitary wing of the Social-Nationalist Assembly.

His appointment was welcomed by Right Sector fascist Borislav Bereza, who sits in the Ukrainian regime parliament, who said he had contacted the Kiev police and that his movement would now be working closely with this force.