Ukraine rebels delay disputed poll
Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine say they have agreed to postpone until February disputed elections that had been planned for the next few weeks.
The move was announced by two senior separatist representatives of the self-proclaimed republics in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Kiev says any polls held not according to Ukrainian law would be "fake". The disagreements have hindered progress towards ending the conflict in which nearly 8,000 people have died.
Moscow denies sending troops and heavy weapons to the separatists. However, the Kremlin admits that Russian "volunteers" are fighting alongside the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The fighting erupted in April 2014, a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula.
Rebel representatives Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego announced the move in a statement published on the separatist DAN news agency.
They said the elections - which had been originally planned on 18 October in Donetsk and 1 November in Luhansk - would be delayed until 21 February 2016.
In return, the rebels said the government in Kiev must fulfil its responsibilities in accordance with a peace deal agreed in Minsk, Belarus, last February.
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