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DPR, LPR leaders: no compromise with Kiev until decision on Donbas status is canceled

Leaders of Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics say "Kiev has trampled upon the fragile Minsk peace and brought the situation to a deadlock"
Igor Plotnitsky and Alexander Zakharchenko EPA/TASS/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO
Igor Plotnitsky and Alexander Zakharchenko
© EPA/TASS/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. No compromise with Kiev is possible until the "disgraceful decisions" made by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the country’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on the special status of Donbas (eastern regions of Ukraine) are canceled, the heads of the Donetsk and Luhansk self-proclaimed republic (DPR and LPR) Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

"Denying a special status to Donbas, Kiev has trampled upon the fragile Minsk peace and brought the situation to a deadlock. Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk have cynically laughed at their European Union partners who have spent so much effort on negotiations. DPR and LPR declare that no compromise with Kiev is possible until yesterday’s disgraceful decisions of Poroshenko and the Verkhovna Rada are canceled," says the statement posted on the website of the Luhansk information center.

The leaders state they think Kiev does not want peace, "seeking instead to destroy Donbas by violence and economic blockade."

The heads of the self-proclaimed republics expressed dissatisfaction in their statement with the Verkhovna Rada’s amendments to the law on the special status of Donbas, which were adopted o Tuesday. According to the statement, the amendments "include only the settlements along the line of contact, and not all the areas, cities, towns, villages, in which a special status should be introduced, as required by Article 1 of the Ukraine’s Law on the Special Status."

In addition, changes "that have not been agreed upon with DPR and LPR" have been introduced to the law that determine the conditions of holding local elections in Donbas. Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky also expressed indignation at the fact that "the introduction of the special status (regime) in certain districts of Donbas has been postponed indefinitely by Poroshenko’s amendments." Thus, the statement says, "point 4 of the set of measures [to implement the Minsk peace settlement plan] is grossly violated."

Rada’s appeal to the UN Security Council and the Council of the European Union with a request to deploy peacekeepers in Ukraine, according to the statement by the DPR and LPR heads, "is disturbing all the logic of the peace plan." "It’s another attempt under the disguise of good intentions to withdraw from the Minsk agreements," the statement says.