Russia has raised the stakes in the Ukraine crisis by saying it respected what rebels claimed was a resounding vote in favour of self-rule in the east of the country.
But the Kremlin also called for dialogue between authorities in Kiev and rebel leaders, as European Union ministers prepared to meet in Brussels to consider toughening sanctions on Russia.
"Moscow respects the expression of the people's will in Donetsk and Lugansk," the Kremlin said in a statement, calling for "the results to be implemented in a civilised manner, without any repeat of violence, through dialogue between representatives of Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk."
Denounced by the central government in Kiev and the West as "a farce", the contentious vote was hastily organised and held with no international observers.
It deepened a crisis that has brought Russia's relations with the West to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Separatist officials in Donetsk province said 89 per cent of voters backed breaking away from Ukraine in Sunday's vote.
Roughly similar results were expected later Monday from Lugansk, the other separatist province that voted.
The United States and other Western countries have said they will not recognise the outcome of the vote, which comes some two months after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.
Isolated violence flared during voting in some parts of eastern Ukraine, where troops have been waging an offensive against well-armed rebels in control of several towns.
The rebels prevented foreign media from observing ballot counting and voting took place with no neutral monitors, incomplete electoral rolls, and a haphazard registration procedure that did nothing to prevent multiple voting.
The two industrial regions are home to seven million people, out of Ukraine's total population of 46 million.
Olga Sirienko, a Donetsk resident, said that even if the results are not recognised internationally, local people wanted to show that "they don't approve of the junta in Kiev".
"We'll be like Crimea used to be, an autonomous republic," she predicted.
Anti-Kiev sentiment was riding high in the regions after a fierce firefight between troops and rebels that killed up to 21 people on Friday, according to Ukrainian officials.
Coupled with deadly clashes and an inferno in Odessa a week earlier that killed at least 42 people, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians who had been wavering decided to vote against the government.
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