Donetsk and Lugansk regions hold elections

Donetsk and Lugansk regions hold elections

"Ukraine does not want peace, as it claims. It is obviously playing a double game," he told reporters, according to AFP.

Zakharchenko added that the authorities of Donetsk are ready to talk with anyone who is willing to listen.

"Today we made another step in building the republic. We are ready to talk with anyone who can do so reasonably and who is willing to do it," RIA Novosti reported.

Exit polls showed that Zakharchenko won convincingly in the race for president of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Parliamentary elections were also held there. The Central Election Commission has said that based on about half the ballots counted, Zakharchenko had won 70 percent of votes.

His party won the parliamentary election and will likely get 65 percent of the vote.

Elections were held in spite of objections coming from Kiev, the European Union and the United Nations, and backed only by Moscow.

Previously, the pro-Russian population in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas boycotted Ukrainian parliamentary elections held in October.

Kiev has declared Sunday's voting "forged and fake" because "the procedure is not transparent, there were no international observers and soldiers from other countries were allowed to vote."

Russia recognized the results of the Ukrainian elections held in October a day after the vote, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted at the time there were many "violations" of the electoral process - and that the voting was not held in the entire country.

Russia has announced that it will also recognize the results of elections in Donbass which it believes to be democratic and free.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned that the vote will seriously undermine the peace process in Ukraine and threaten the peace and protocol and memorandum from Minsk.