Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to respect the outcome of Ukraine's presidential election but warned that the country had descended into all-out civil war.
Seven people were killed in fighting between rebels and defence forces outside the eastern industrial hub of Donetsk on Friday, a day after the deaths of 18 soldiers in the heaviest loss for the Ukraine military since the conflict began.
Interim President Oleksandr Turchynov called on voters to turn out in force on Sunday to prevent Ukraine "being turned into a part of a post-Soviet empire".
The authorities are mobilising tens of thousands of police and volunteers to try to ensure security on polling day, although the pro-Russian separatists are threatening to disrupt the vote in areas under their control in the industrial east.
Sunday's vote is seen as the most crucial since Ukraine's independence in 1991, with the country facing the threat of partition and teetering on the brink of economic collapse.
Billionaire chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko is the favourite, enjoying a near 30-point lead over former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Putin, who has in the past given only grudging backing to the election, appeared to suggest he would accept the outcome of the vote.
"We understand that the people of Ukraine want their country to emerge from this crisis. We will treat their choice with respect," he told an economic forum in his home town of Saint Petersburg on Friday.
"We are today working with those people who control the government and after the election we will of course work with the newly-elected authorities."
The US and its European allies have threatened more sanctions if Moscow disrupts the vote, adding to a series of punitive measures imposed after Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March.
But Putin brushed off the threats, saying the sanctions will "boomerang" on the West.
He accused Washington of choreographing the February ouster of Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych,describing it as a "coup" that resulted in chaos and "full-scale civil war".
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