Two Russian journalists held for a week after being detained by pro-government forces in eastern Ukraine were released Sunday and flew to Moscow.

Speaking to reporters in the Russian capital, the two journalists for website LifeNews denied claims -- repeated last week by the State Department in Washington -- that they had been carrying anti-aircraft missiles when detained.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will visit Crimea during Ukraine's presidential vote on Sunday as Moscow demonstrates its hold over the peninsula it annexed in March.

Among other meetings during the two-day visit, Medvedev will on Sunday visit immigration offices in the city of Sevastopol where Russian passports are being issued to local residents, his office said in a statement.

The streets were deserted on Sunday in Ukraine's rebel-held eastern hub of Donetsk, with only a few polling stations open for an election many here are ignoring.

"Ukraine is now another country so I don't see why we should take part in this election," said one woman in Donetsk city center who gave her name as Elisabeta.

A bitterly divided Ukraine voted Sunday in a presidential election seen as the most important in the country's history as it battles a deadly pro-Russian insurrection in the east.

Turnout was brisk in the capital Kiev and the west where long queues were reported but across the rebel-controlled industrial east, most polling stations remained closed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday wrapped up the European election campaign for her conservative CDU party, calling the EU a "peace project" that was especially relevant during the crisis in Ukraine.

"Our task today is to again drive forward the peace project and -- especially in view of Ukraine -- to again and again talk to Russia, to again extend our hand, even if we don't always agree with everything" it does, she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that it was "impossible" to isolate Russia from the global economy despite pressure from the West over the crisis in Ukraine.

He also rejected talk of a "new Cold War" between Moscow and the West and denied claims Russia was trying to revive the Soviet empire.

"We're in a war situation," says one of the deliverymen bringing ballot papers in under armed guard to a polling station in the eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillya.

"There is more security this time," he adds.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called on the European Union to back efforts for new gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine, warning against "radicals" in Kiev blocking supplies.

Speaking at an economic forum in his hometown Saint Petersburg, Putin said Moscow has been a reliable gas supplier to Europe but could not count on transit countries like Ukraine.

Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel will embark Wednesday on a 12-day trip that will take in Singapore before heading to Europe for talks with NATO allies.

The tour will begin with a brief stop at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, where the U.S. defense secretary will receive briefings on missile defense, his office said.

Russian troops near the Ukraine border will return to base in at least the next 20 days following an order from President Vladimir Putin, the military's chief of general staff said Friday.

"The troops are being moved onto trains and military transport aircraft. This will take around 20 days," General Valery Gerasimov, Russia's chief of general staff, was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.