You're reading: Peskov: Actions of Kyiv authorities in eastern Ukraine cast doubt on coming presidential elections

 Actions of the Kyiv authorities in eastern Ukraine cast doubt on the coming presidential elections in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "Such situational developments in Ukraine and such criminal actions of those, who are in Kyiv - even now they challenge a priori the legitimacy of the elections scheduled in May," Peskov told reporters in St. Petersburg on April 24.

 Putin gave comprehensive assessments of what is happening in Ukraine during a media forum of the All-Russia People’s Front on April 24, Peskov said. “The main thing is namely the crime of using armed forces against the country’s ethnicities,” the spokesman said.

“What is happening in Slovyansk can be interpreted in two ways – on the one hand, as an attempt to disrupt the May elections, on the other, as an aspiration to hold them amid any conditions,” Peskov said. “Kyiv’s actions do not add legitimacy to the authorities in both cases,” he said.