BRUSSELS, November 4. /TASS/. NATO members will not recognize elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics (DPR and LPR), the alliance’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

Stoltenberg claimed the elections of the heads of state and lawmakers held November 2 in the DPR and LPR are illegitimate.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier said it respects the “will expression of the residents of (Ukraine’s) southeast”.

According to the UN, more than 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics.