The U.S. Department of State has said that the recent local elections in Ukraine reflect the will of Ukrainian people and Ukrainian democracy remains resilient.

"We congratulate the people of Ukraine for exercising their right to vote in yesterday's local elections. Ukraine's democracy remains resilient, despite facing difficult economic conditions and Russia's actions in Ukraine, including the occupation of Crimea. According to initial reports from international observers, these elections largely reflected the will of the Ukrainian people and generally respected democratic process," State Derpartment spokesman John Kirby said in a statement which was published on the website of U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Monday.

He said that the local elections were an important step as Ukraine continues to move forward with difficult reforms to decentralize power.

"We look forward to a successful second round of the elections on November 15 for those mayoral races in which a single candidate did not receive a majority of the votes. We further expect that those in Mariupol and other areas where voting could not take place to get a chance to exercise their franchise on November 15," Kirby said.

In addition, he said that the U.S. government hopes that Ukrainian citizens living in the conflict zone, internally displaced persons and refugees will soon have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote in compliance with Ukrainian law and OSCE standards, as called for in the Minsk agreements.