KIEV, Ukraine -- With anti-Russia sentiment spiking in Ukraine, parliamentary election results Monday showed a crushing victory for pro-European parties.
Russia said it will recognize the result of Sunday's vote and urged Ukraine's new order to grapple with the country's most pressing problems.
With 72 percent of the votes counted Monday, the three main Western-leaning parties stood to win a combined 54 percent. Coalition negotiations were already underway.
Parliament is now largely purged of the loyalists of former President Viktor Yanukovych, who sparked months of protests -- and eventually his ouster in February -- with his decision to deepen ties with Russia instead of the European Union.
Of the European-minded parties, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front had 21.9 percent of the vote while President Petro Poroshenko's party had 21.5 percent. A new pro-European party based in western Ukraine was running third with 11 percent.
The Fatherland party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has argued strongly for NATO membership and is likely to join a pro-Europe coalition, had 5.7 percent of the vote.
Poroshenko last month laid out an ambitious agenda that includes significant changes to Ukraine's police, justice and tax systems, defense sector, and health care -- all to be completed by 2020.
Poroshenko has also said he wants to see Ukraine become more self-reliant for its energy needs and farm out more powers to local government.
Messages from Western governments congratulating Ukraine on its election pressed the theme of government changes.
President Barack Obama said in a statement Monday that the United States would assist Ukraine to "promote further democratic development, strengthen the rule of law, and foster economic stability and growth in Ukraine."
Alluding to the unrest still raging in Ukraine's east, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said a government-overhaul process must include an effort to establish national dialogue.
Despite a nominal truce reached in early September, battles between government troops and pro-Russia separatist fighters remain a constant. Rebel authorities spurned Ukraine's election, and almost 3 million potential voters in areas under their control did not cast ballots.
The most staunchly dissenting group in parliament will be the Opposition Bloc. That party attracted much of its votes from government-controlled areas in the east and has within its ranks several figures from Yanukovych's Party of Regions. With its 10 percent of the vote, the Opposition Bloc thinks about 60 candidates on the party list will take up seats in 423-member legislature.
International observers hailed Sunday's election as a step forward in building democratic institutions. Kent Harstedt, who oversaw the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe observer mission, said the election offered voters a real choice and showed "respect for fundamental freedoms."
But the organization also said there were isolated security incidents on election day and instances of intimidation and destruction of campaign property ahead of the vote.
Russia had criticized Ukraine's elections, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Moscow will recognize its outcome.
"It is very important that in Ukraine, at last, there will be a government that is occupied not with ... the pulling of Ukraine either to the West or to the East, but with the real problems that are facing the country," Lavrov told Russia's Life News.
Views among Ukrainians have varied.
Anton Karpinsky, a 36-year-old doctor in Kiev, said he was delighted that Ukraine will now have a pro-Western government.
"Our revolution and fight was not in vain," Karpinsky said. "The election shows that Ukraine sees its future in Europe and NATO, and we will get there step by step."
Stepan Burko, a 67-year-old retiree whose $140 monthly pension barely covers his food bills, worried difficult times remain ahead.
"The only certain winners in Ukraine are slogans. But it is much more difficult to overcome poverty and war," Burko said. "If it weren't for my children's help, I would go hungry. These are the problems the new authorities should tackle."
Some hoped that a strong government could negotiate an end to the war in the east.
"The main thing is to put a stop to the war. We are so tired of killings, shelling and weapons," said Tatyana Rublevskaya, a 48-year-old shopkeeper.
As the conflict in Ukraine's east continues, Poland announced Monday that it will move thousands of troops toward its eastern borders in a historic realignment of a military structure built in the Cold War.
Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said the troops are needed in the east because of the conflict in neighboring Ukraine.
"The geopolitical situation has changed, we have the biggest crisis of security since the Cold War, and we must draw conclusions from that," Siemoniak said.
He said at least three military bases in the east will see their populations increase from the current 30 percent of capacity to almost 90 percent by 2017, and more military hardware will be moved to those bases.
He said it was not a "nervous or radical move" but that because of this "situation of threat, we would like those units in the east of Poland to be more efficient."
Information for this article was contributed by Lynn Berry and Monika Scislowska of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/28/2014