KIEV, May 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Early elections of Ukrainian president scheduled for May 25 will be held in the entire country but for a number of polling station, the work of which is paralyzed, Ukraine’s parliament-appointed President and speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, or parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov said on Thursday.

“A new president will be elected at democratic polls on May 25,” he said.

Earlier on Thursday, Ukraine’s parliament-appointed Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk came out with a similar statement.

Also on Thursday, the parliament of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said no presidential elections would be held on its territory. “The Ukrainian authorities claim they are still organizing elections on the territory of the now former Ukraine,” Vladimir Makovich, a deputy chairman of the presidium of the Donetsk republic’s Supreme Council, said at an extraordinary session of the republic’s legislature and added that Donetsk lawmakers had banned presidential elections. As many as 78 lawmakers voted in favour of this ban, no one voted against or abstained, he noted. “In line with this decision, there will be no presidential elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic on May 25.”

On May 21, Turchynov said that the Kiev authorities were ready for the final stage of a special operation in Ukraine’s east. He said the armed forces were ready to conduct a mopping-up operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and ensure that Ukrainian presidential elections were held there on May 25.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday that a fair election process was hardly ever imaginable in a country where punitive operations were underway. “Obviously, election of the head of state is a step in the right direction, but it is vital to ensure that these elections are really nationwide,” he said. “But it is hard to imagine an election process in a country where punitive operations are underway in a number of regions.” “Ukraine seems to have big problems with ensuring the nationwide nature of the elections,” he added.