Ukraine's move to prolong the law on the special status of the country's eastern region of Donbas only misleads the central government's Western allies that are searching for positive signals from Kiev, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) Ukraine's move to prolong the law on the special status of the country's eastern region of Donbas only misleads the central government's Western allies that are searching for positive signals from Kiev, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
On October 4, the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, extended the Donbas special status law until December 31, 2019. The law stipulates that a special status will be granted to the region after it fulfills a number of conditions, in particular, withdrawing what the central government qualifies as illegal formations from the area. Until then, the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR), located in Donbas, will be unable to legally hold local elections. Meanwhile, the elections of DPR and LPR heads and parliaments are scheduled for November 11, and the Ukrainian government has already announced that it would not recognize their results.
The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasized that the move had prompted an "enthusiastic" reaction from Western nations, specifically Germany and France, which are are, along with Russia and Ukraine, included in the Normandy contact group that aims to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
"Amid the ongoing election campaign in Ukraine, the peace process has long become a victim of the political games that different forces play as they compete for voters' votes. The prolongation of the Donbas special status law for one more year is meant just to deceive Kiev's Western friends who are stubbornly trying to find 'some positive signals' in Kiev's actions and encourage Ukraine by new handouts," the statement read.
The ministry added that Kiev continued ignoring the Minsk agreements, signed in February 2015, in an effort to end hostilities in the region. According to the ministry, Kiev ignores both the political and the military aspects of the accords, namely, the separation of forces and weapons on the contact line.
"The Verkhovna Rada's decision has nothing in common with the fulfillment of article 11 of the Minsk Package of Measures, as this article contains an explicit reference to the need to adopt a permanent, not temporary, law on the special status of the region. Moreover, such a law should be enshrined in the county's constitution. The current Ukrainian authorities have long forgotten this, and they are also concealing the fact that the status law should be coordinated with representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk [people's republics]," the statement read on.
The law on Donbas' special status was initially enacted for a three-year period in October 2014, soon after Kiev engaged in an armed conflict with the DPR and LPR over their secession and refusal to recognize the central government. In October 2017, it was prolonged for 12 months.
