18:00
25.5.2014
And the meme that Poroshenko won outright continues. I guess we'll know in a couple hours...
17:55
25.5.2014
This just in from AFP on Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Crimea:
SEVASTOPOL, May 25, 2014 (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited Crimea to hand out passports during Ukraine's presidential vote on Sunday, in a move denounced by Kiev as a "deliberate provocation".
In a symbolic demonstration of Moscow's hold over the peninsula it annexed in March, Medvedev began the two-day surprise visit by going to a migration office to hand out Russian passports.
"Best of luck with your new Russian passport," Medvedev told a young blonde woman at the office in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, in images shown on Russian television.
The head of the Russian federal migration service who accompanied Medvedev, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said that 850,000 passports were in the process of being distributed to Crimeans and that another 900,000 were being printed.
The region has a population of about two million.
In Kiev, the foreign ministry slammed the visit, Medvedev's second to Crimea since the Russian takeover.
"A visit by the Russian prime minister to occupied Ukraine on the day of the presidential election in Ukraine is particular impudence and a deliberate provocation aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement issued moments after Medvedev's arrival.
In a symbolic demonstration of Moscow's hold over the peninsula it annexed in March, Medvedev began the two-day surprise visit by going to a migration office to hand out Russian passports.
"Best of luck with your new Russian passport," Medvedev told a young blonde woman at the office in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, in images shown on Russian television.
The head of the Russian federal migration service who accompanied Medvedev, Konstantin Romodanovsky, said that 850,000 passports were in the process of being distributed to Crimeans and that another 900,000 were being printed.
The region has a population of about two million.
In Kiev, the foreign ministry slammed the visit, Medvedev's second to Crimea since the Russian takeover.
"A visit by the Russian prime minister to occupied Ukraine on the day of the presidential election in Ukraine is particular impudence and a deliberate provocation aimed at destabilising the situation in Ukraine," the ministry said in a statement issued moments after Medvedev's arrival.
17:51
25.5.2014
17:42
25.5.2014
17:41
25.5.2014
17:40
25.5.2014
17:39
25.5.2014
17:37
25.5.2014
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service caught up with U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, who said he'd "visited 10 different polling stations this afternoon and...seen thousands of Ukrainians lining up to participate" in the vote. We'll have more complete remarks from Pyatt soon along with the video (it's in Ukrainian HERE), but he did say, "I have seen no particular problems."
17:36
25.5.2014
A group of Crimean Tatars drove from Russian-controlled Crimea to neighboring Kherson Oblast to vote in the Ukrainian presidential election. A video from RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
17:15
25.5.2014
Some interesting facts and figures ftom "The Kyiv Post" Live Blog about voting in the east:
Observers say 15 out of 34 constituency election commissions not working in Donetsk Oblast
5:16 p.m. -- The information according to Jock Mendoza-Wilson, spokesman for billionaire Rinat Akhmetov:
According to the information provided by the election observers on the morning of May 25, 15 of 34 constituency election commissions do not work in Donetsk Oblast: Donetsk, 41 ,42,43, 44, 45; Horlivka, 51,52; 53 – Yenakiyevo; 54 – Torez; 55 – Shakhtersk; 46 Artemovsk (some of he election commissions are open, but they don’t know what to do as they don’t have any ballots); 48th precinct – Kramatorsk; 56, 57 – Makeyevka; 60 precinct, Maryinka (the constituency election commission doesn’t work but some of the polling stations are open)
Some of the polling stations are open and are trying to organize the voting process in just seven electoral precincts:
47 precinct (Aleksandrovka) – Only 19 polling stations; in two election commissions, heads and secretariesr etired from responsibility but the commissions decided to continue working;
49 precinct (Dobropolye) – just 8 polling stations are not open in Dobropolye, including one station in Dobropolye district
50 precinct (Krasnoarmeysk). In Krasnoarmeysk, six polling stations are not open (out of 55).
58 precinct (Mariupol) – just four polling stations are not open
59 precinct (Mariupol) – 91 polling stations are open, 8 stations are closed;
61 precinct (Volnovakha) – Some of the polling stations have opened but early in the morning polling stations No. 140803, No.140800, No. 140792 have been seized by Donetsk People's Republic representatives;
62 precinct (Starobeshevo)lthe electoral precincts are just receiving the voting bulletins. In Amvrosyevka, some unknown people have broken the windows of many buildings where the precinct election commissions sit.
5:16 p.m. -- The information according to Jock Mendoza-Wilson, spokesman for billionaire Rinat Akhmetov:
According to the information provided by the election observers on the morning of May 25, 15 of 34 constituency election commissions do not work in Donetsk Oblast: Donetsk, 41 ,42,43, 44, 45; Horlivka, 51,52; 53 – Yenakiyevo; 54 – Torez; 55 – Shakhtersk; 46 Artemovsk (some of he election commissions are open, but they don’t know what to do as they don’t have any ballots); 48th precinct – Kramatorsk; 56, 57 – Makeyevka; 60 precinct, Maryinka (the constituency election commission doesn’t work but some of the polling stations are open)
Some of the polling stations are open and are trying to organize the voting process in just seven electoral precincts:
47 precinct (Aleksandrovka) – Only 19 polling stations; in two election commissions, heads and secretariesr etired from responsibility but the commissions decided to continue working;
49 precinct (Dobropolye) – just 8 polling stations are not open in Dobropolye, including one station in Dobropolye district
50 precinct (Krasnoarmeysk). In Krasnoarmeysk, six polling stations are not open (out of 55).
58 precinct (Mariupol) – just four polling stations are not open
59 precinct (Mariupol) – 91 polling stations are open, 8 stations are closed;
61 precinct (Volnovakha) – Some of the polling stations have opened but early in the morning polling stations No. 140803, No.140800, No. 140792 have been seized by Donetsk People's Republic representatives;
62 precinct (Starobeshevo)lthe electoral precincts are just receiving the voting bulletins. In Amvrosyevka, some unknown people have broken the windows of many buildings where the precinct election commissions sit.