DONETSK, May 26. /ITAR-TASS/. The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic is ready to cooperate with presidential election winner Petro Poroshenko only with Russia’s mediation, speaker of the republic’s legislature Denis Pushilin said on Monday.

Ukraine held early presidential elections on Sunday, in which billionaire Poroshenko gained over 50% of the votes, according to preliminary information. The elections were held after a coup in Kiev in February forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych to leave the country.

The elections were marred by their boycott in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which had proclaimed their independence from Ukraine at the May 11 local referendums while Kiev continued its punitive combat operation in the east of the country.

“We have imposed a martial law. As you know, Poroshenko has said that the ‘anti-terrorist’ operation will not be stopped and everyone who stands to support self-defense forces will be treated as terrorists,” Pushilin said.

Speaking about the possibility of cooperation with the election race winner, Pushilin said that “some dialogue with him is possible only with the mediation of the Russian Federation. It is possible only on the issues of the exchange of prisoners of war and the withdrawal of the occupational forces.”