MOSCOW, Nov. 6 -- The forthcoming elections in Ukraine's rebel regions of Donetsk and Luhansk do not contradict the Minsk accords on resolving the conflict in the country's east, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
Donetsk and Luhansk, together known as Donbass in east Ukraine, are scheduled to elect heads and parliament members of the self-proclaimed republics on Sunday.
Peskov said that although Moscow's influence on the two regions is "not unlimited," it is important for Moscow who will lead them.
He declined to say whether Russia would recognize the outcome of the elections.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, at a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week in Kiev, called the elections "fake" and said "they will not have any legal force nor be recognized by the international community."
The Ukrainian government and the Donbass rebels reached a peace agreement brokered by Russia, France and Germany in September 2017 in the Belarussian capital of Minsk, and a more detailed renewal of the agreement was signed in February 2017.
The Minsk deals envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange, and holding local elections in Donbass, among other measures.
However, Poroshenko, said that fair, transparent and democratic elections can only be held in accordance with the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and after the withdrawal of all illegal armed groups.