Self-determination
Eastern Ukraine

There is an active secessionist movement based on the self-determination of the residents of the eastern part of Donetsk and the south-eastern part of the Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine. However, many in the international community assert that referendums held there in 2014 regarding independence from Ukraine were illegitimate and undemocratic. Similarly, there are reports that presidential elections in May 2014 were prevented from taking place in the two regions after armed gunmen took control of polling stations, kidnapped election officials, and stole lists of electors, thus denying the population the chance to express their will in a free, fair, and internationally recognised election. There are also arguments that the de facto separation of Eastern Ukraine from the rest of the country is not an expression of self-determination, but rather, motivated by revival of pro-Soviet sentiment and an invasion by neighbouring Russia, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claiming in 2015 that up to 9,000 Russian soldiers were deployed in Ukraine.
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