In pictures: Ukrainians head to the polls to elect president

People fill out their ballots in voting booths at polling station in the village of Kosmach in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of western Ukraine. Ukrainian polling stations opened on Sunday in a presidential election overshadowed by violence in the country’s mainly Russian-speaking east and by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Uters, Kacper Pempel/Reuters

A woman studies her ballot paper during voting in a presidential election at a Kiev polling station on May 25, 2014. David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters

People cast their ballots during presidential vote at a polling station in Kiev. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Members of the Election Commission prepare before voting starts at a polling station in Dnipropetrovsk. Ukrainians are widely expected to give a resounding endorsement to the overthrow of their last elected leader by voting on Sunday for presidential candidates promising close ties with the West, in defiance of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

A pro-Russian armed militant with a sticker which reads “Donetsk People Republic” guards a checkpoint blocking the major highway which links Kharkiv, outside Slovyansk, Ukraine. Ukrainians vote Sunday in an early presidential election that could be a crucial step toward resolving the country’s crisis, but separatists in the east are threatening to block the vote. Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo

A Ukrainian veteran of the Maidan freedom movement registers to receive his ballot for the presidential elections, at a polling station in central Kiev, Ukraine. Robert Ghement/EPA

Former prime minister and presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, centre, accompanied by her daughter Yevgenia, left, and husband Oleksander, right, casts her vote during a presidential election at a polling station in Dnipropetrovsk on May 25, 2014. Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters

Voters entering a polling booth before casting their ballots in the presidential election. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Ukrainian armed police guard a polling station during the presidential elections in central Kiev, Ukraine, 25 May 2014. The government in Kiev has vowed that the vote will go ahead in all parts of the country, including Crimea, which was annexed by Russia after a controversial referendum in March. Robert Ghement/EPA

A woman holds her ballot as she leaves a polling station in the eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillya on May 25, 2014. Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo

Ukrainians turned out en masse in the capital Kiev and the west but in the east – in the grip of a deadly pro-Russian insurrection for weeks – most polling stations remained closed.