Ukraine holds key local polls

Western-backed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's fragile ruling coalition faced a major survival test yesterday in local elections swiftly marred by polls failing to open in the strategic port of Mariupol.

The elections come during a lull in fighting with pro-Russian rebels, who control parts of the country's east, as fears grow in Kiev that Ukraine is slipping off the global radar.

Meanwhile, direct flights between Ukraine and Russia were grounded yesterday as mistrust between the uneasy ex-Soviet neighbours boiled over into a new trade war that affects tens of thousands of families.

Russia and Ukraine share both a long history and a fierce animosity sparked by months of winter 2013-2014 protests that ousted Kremlin-president Viktor Poroshenko and brought a strongly pro-Western leadership to power.

Voters began to line up across government-administered regions apart from Mariupol -- the southeastern city of 500,000 which could act as a land bridge between pro-Moscow rebel regions and the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.

Poroshenko's Solidarity party said the Mariupol vote was pushed back to next month "due to the improper preparation of election ballots, the absence of control over their printing and number, and reliable storage."