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Lugansk likely to mend ties with Ukraine after power change in Kiev

After the coup d’etat in February 2014, Ukraine’s new authorities failed to secure support of all citizens - Donbass opposed the policy towards severing ties with Russia

LUGANSK, May 12. /TASS/. Acting head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik has said that the republic might develop relations with Ukraine but only after the regime change in Kiev.

"We fulfill the Minsk accords explicitly and consistently. Nevertheless, the Kiev regime simulates and blocks their implementation, thus demonstrating to us and the entire world its inability to implement the agreements," Pasechnik said quoted by Luganskinformcenter agency.

"Therefore, relations with Ukraine are possible only after the current political regime has changed and full-scale reforms are launched aimed at decentralization and creating conditions for development of the country’s regions," he added.

After the coup d’etat in February 2014, Ukraine’s new authorities failed to secure support of all citizens - Donbass opposed the policy towards severing ties with Russia. The proposal to launch a campaign against citizens of eastern Ukraine was voiced by then-acting president Alexander Turchinov in April 7, 2014. The country’s forces were deployed to quash the protest in the region. The clashes between the army and Ukrainian nationalists with militias in Donbass by summer 2014 grew into full-scale combat actions with the use of military hardware and aviation.

On 30 April 2018, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko officially declared that the anti-terror operation in Donbass was completed and the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) kicked off. The new game plan is expected to "bring drastic changes" to managing the military structure giving Ukraine’s army additional powers and control over units of the National Guard, the Security Services and the National Police.

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