French president Francois Hollande (front right) in Baku, Azerbaijan
French President Francois Hollande dismissed a
referendum on self-rule in east Ukraine on Sunday, saying the only
vote that mattered was a presidential election on May 25.
Separatist rebels went ahead with
the vote in defiance of Ukraine's pro-Western government and one
announced plans to form their own state bodies and military once results are
announced on Monday.
Another said the vote would not
split the former Soviet republic straight away, but would give the east greater
autonomy and could lead to independence or unity with Russia.
Hollande said the vote was so
makeshift it could not even be called a referendum. "I don't want to use
the word referendum because there is no point," he said on arrival
in Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, which, like Ukraine, was once
part of the Moscow-led Soviet Union.
"The only election that counts
is the one on May 25," he said in a reference to a planned nationwide
ballot to choose a successor to Viktor Yanukovich,
the pro-Russian president of Ukraine toppled by unrelenting
protests.
Hollande also renewed a threat to
launch a new wave of sanctions if the presidential election could not go ahead
as planned.
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