The Ukrainian authorities are preparing to disrupt local elections in eastern parts of the country, including almost on the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by Kyiv, including Mariupol, the Opposition Bloc party said in a statement circulated on Tuesday.

"The authorities are preparing to disrupt local elections in eastern regions of Ukraine. While statements on democracy are made publicly, the Central Elections Commission is covertly drawing up a resolution canceling elections nearly on the entire Donbas territory under control, including Mariupol," the Opposition Bloc said.

The statement's authors said the Central Elections Commission (CEC) may issue such a resolution based on a letter from head of the Donetsk regional military-civilian administration Pavlo Zhebrivsky, which suggests that elections should be canceled almost on the region's entire territory. An analogous letter has also been drawn up by the Luhansk administration headed by Heorhiy Tuka.

"Simultaneously with this, the Kharkiv territorial justice department is making its last attempts to thwart the Opposition Bloc's registration to run in the elections on the region's territory. Having lost a court hearing and having no legal arguments, department officials instructed by the authorities are simply hiding from our party representatives so as not to be served with the Kyiv District Administrative Court's judgment and not to comply with it," the statement says.

The authorities are acting this way as they fear "to lose the elections and plan to thwart their organization in the districts where the Opposition Bloc, the only real alternative to the ruling coalition, is going to win," it said.

"We demand that the authorities stop actions violating the constitution and [other] laws of Ukraine. We demand that the Prosecutor General's Office assess all steps taken by the authorities responsible for these violations in legal terms. We are urging all international organizations and representatives of the embassies of developed democracies to stop lawlessness having nothing to do with democratic procedures and the rule of law. Elections must be held on the entire territory of the country, not only in the regions that the authorities choose at their own discretion," it said.