14.10 Kerry: Int'l Community Will Not Recognize Any Independence Referenda in East Ukraine

PARIS, October 14 (RIA Novosti) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Kiev and the international community would deem any independence referendums in self-proclaimed eastern regions in eastern Ukraine as illegitimate and would never recognize them.

"I emphasized to Foreign Minister Lavrov that the only legitimate elections in Ukraine are the Rada elections on October 26 and the December 7 elections of local leaders in the Donbas special status zone," Kerry told reporters following three-hour talks with Lavrov in Paris.

"In our judgment, any efforts to hold independence referenda in Luhansk and Donetsk at this time would be a violation of the Minsk agreements and their results will not be recognized by Ukraine and the international community," Kerry said.