More from our News Desk on today's voting in the rebel-held east:
Voting has begun in controversial elections in parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Self-declared officials in parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions say the polls will elect leaders and so-called "people's councils" for their "people's republics."
The Ukrainian government, the United States, the European Union, other Western countries, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon say the elections are illegitimate and will not be recognized.
Russian officials have said they will recognize the results of the vote.
Four people are running for the post of head of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic, including current leader Igor Plotnitsky, and three "social movements" are competing for seats in the so-called people's council.
Separately, three people -- including current leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko -- are running for the top post of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, and two movements are competing for seats in the people's council.
Zakharchenko has called the elections "a crucial moment when our state will become legitimate."
Separatist authorities said on November 1 that 3 million ballots have been printed and that voting by Internet had started a few days ago.
The fighting in eastern Ukraine has caused hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
The elections are not regulated by Ukrainian law or overseen by the Ukrainian Central Election Commission.
It also will not be observed by international monitors from bodies such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), but separatist officials claims they have between 30 and 70 observers from several foreign countries and places like the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia.
The Ukrainian government and broader international community have vowed not to recognize the poll, which they say violates the September Minsk agreement between representatives of Ukraine, Russia, the OSCE, and the separatist regions.
Moscow, however, has said the process is in compliance with the Minsk agreement and has pledged in advance to accept its results.
In comments published on October 28, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would "of course recognize the results."
Moscow has made no formal recognition yet of the "people's republics" the separatists have proclaimed in parts of Donetsk and Luhansk and denies involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
That is despite what Kyiv, NATO, several Western powers, and numerous eyewitness reports by international correspondents say is clear evidence that Russia has sent in troops and weapons to help the separatists fight Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine's national security service, the SBU, issued a warning late on October 31 of the risk of "provocations" during the separatist vote.
The elections come at a time when Ukraine's tenuous cease-fire with the separatist fighters is under constant strain.
Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council reported on November 1 that six soldiers had been killed and another 10 wounded in fighting since October 31.
The latest UN figures show 4,035 people have been killed in about seven months of war -- more than 300 of them in the last 11 days.
Just in from AFP:
Ukrainian authorities said they are opening a criminal investigation into Sunday's separatist elections in the country's east as an illegal "power grab."
"The holding of so-called 'elections' on November 2 contradicts" the constitution and resembles "a power grab," the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement. "A criminal probe has been opened."
From a Reuters story on today's voting:
Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the current rebel prime minister whose campaign advertisements are plastered across Donetsk, is almost certain to win the vote for the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
Zakharchenko is a 38-year-old former mining electrician who uses earthy language in a heavy local accent. He has compared the region's coal deposits to the oil reserves in the United Arab Emirates and has promised pensioners a stipend that will allow them to go on safari in Australia.
Wearing a dark suit rather than his usual military fatigues, Zakharchenko dropped his vote into a ballot box at a polling station at a local school.
"For justice, happiness, peace and prosperity," he said.
His opponents, two lesser known separatist figures, have rarely appeared in public.
"He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep. He only works for us 150 percent of the time," said Lyudmila Kovalenko, who works at a school. She said rebel leadership had fixed the windows of the school after it was hit by a mortar.