Ukraine's polling stations open in a presidential election overshadowed by violence in the country's mainly Russian-speaking east and by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
ການເລືອກຕັ້ງ ປະທານາທິບໍດີ ໃນ ຢູເຄຣນ
![A Ukrainian soldier waits outside voting booths at a polling station in the village of Desna in the Chernihiv region.](https://gdb.voanews.com/cf44c40b-5954-469d-b13f-81c31d20d2fe_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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A Ukrainian soldier waits outside voting booths at a polling station in the village of Desna in the Chernihiv region.
![Pro-Russian militants smash ballot boxes in front of the seized regional administration building in Donetsk. Ukraine's critical presidential election got underway under the wary scrutiny of a world eager for stability in a country rocked by a deadly uprising in the east.](https://gdb.voanews.com/b0496bdc-2c2f-4883-8848-a8bbf588f880_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Pro-Russian militants smash ballot boxes in front of the seized regional administration building in Donetsk. Ukraine's critical presidential election got underway under the wary scrutiny of a world eager for stability in a country rocked by a deadly uprising in the east.
![Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, left, and his wife Maria, right, cast their ballots at a polling station in Kyiv.](https://gdb.voanews.com/f68db649-8b2a-4324-b25a-e8050bd2f436_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko, left, and his wife Maria, right, cast their ballots at a polling station in Kyiv.
![Darth Vader, the Ukrainian Internet Party candidate for Kyiv's mayor, waits to receive his ballot at a polling station in Kiev.](https://gdb.voanews.com/ca315d07-5cd0-45c4-9bae-8480e0562835_w1024_q10_s.jpg)
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Darth Vader, the Ukrainian Internet Party candidate for Kyiv's mayor, waits to receive his ballot at a polling station in Kiev.