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DPR, LPR setting up commission on reforming Ukraine’s constitution — joint statement

The republics are setting up a commission to implement the provision of the complex of measures concerning reforms of the Ukrainian constitution and to align the republics’ constitutional laws
Vladislav Deinego (left), Denis Pushilin (right) TASS/EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH
Vladislav Deinego (left), Denis Pushilin (right)
© TASS/EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Repiblics (DPR and LPR) said on Monday they decided to set up a commission on reforming Ukraine’s constitution and offered head of the Ukrainian constitutional commission Volodymyr Groysman to establish a joint working group.

"In line with article 11 of the complex of measures on the implementation of the Minsk agreements of February 12, 2015, Ukraine is to carry out a constitutional reform, with decentralization as a key element of such reform," DPR and LPR representatives in the Contact Group on Ukraine, Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego, said in a joint statement. "The same article binds to adopt a law on the republics’ special status. The republics are setting up a commission that will be tasked to implement the provision of the complex of measures concerning reforms of the Ukrainian constitution and to align the republics’ constitutional laws."

"We offer head of Ukraine’s constitutional commission Volodymyr Groysman to set up a joint working group. We have already addressed him with concrete initiatives on the beginning of cooperation. So far, nothing has been done. We have received no reply. That is why we suggest Groysman offer his proposals on commissioning representatives of the Ukrainian constitutional commission to the above mentioned group, obviously on condition that our representatives are also included in this commission," the statement said.

Minsk agreements

Marathon talks between the Normandy Four leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko — in Minsk on February 12 yielded a package of agreements, which in particular envisaged ceasefire between the Ukrainian conflicting sides starting from midnight on February 15.

Concurrently, the Belarusian capital hosted a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine involving Ukraine’s ex-president Leonid Kuchma, Kiev’s special representative for humanitarian issues Viktor Medvedchuk, the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, and Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and OSCE’s envoy Heidi Tagliavini, both acting as mediators.

As a result, a package of measures was adopted to implement the Minsk agreements. A separate provision of the document binds to carry out a constitutional reform in Ukraine by the end of 2015. The key element of this reform is to be decentralization.