World Bulletin/News Desk

Russia will recognize Ukraine’s parliamentary election results if the OSCE does, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

However, he also said that Moscow was ready to recognize rebel elections planned for Nov. 2 in the pro-Russian separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

In remarks to the media in Russia, Lavrov said that although the elections were not held throughout Ukraine, Russia would recognize Sunday’s results if OSCE observers did so.

"The elections that will take place on the territory of the proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics will be important from the point of view of legitimising power," Lavrov told Russia's Izvestia paper and LifeNews TV in an interview published in full on his ministry's website on Tuesday.

Asked if Moscow would recognise the election results, he said: "We expect the elections to be held as arranged and of course we will recognise their results."

Crimea and most parts of the eastern region of Donbas, which are still not under the full control of the Ukrainian authorities, did not participate in the elections.

Lavrov was speaking as first results suggested that pro-E.U. parties were heading for victory.

According to initial reports, pro-government parties have received more than 50 percent of the Ukrainian vote. President Petro Poroshenko's party, Bloc Petro Poroshenko, is seen as the favorite in the elections. He is expected to form a coalition with Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenuk’s People’s Front party.

Final results are expected to be declared on Oct. 30.

Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March following the removal of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych a month earlier.

Following months of fighting, a cease-fire agreement between Kiev and eastern pro-Russian separatists was signed on Sept. 5 in Minsk.