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Kiev has no grounds to demand cancellation of Donbass vote — LPR negotiator

Ukrainian negotiators earlier demanded elections in the self-proclaimed republics be cancelled as running counter to the Minsk agreements

MINSK, October 16. /TASS/. Kiev has no grounds to demand cancellation of elections in Donbass scheduled for November 11, Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the political subgroup of the Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine, told TASS on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s representatives to the Contact Group and its working groups that met in the Belarusian capital city Minsk demanded elections in the self-proclaimed republics be cancelled as running counter to the Minsk agreements.

"As a matter of fact, the Minsk agreements say nothing about elections in the Donbass republics, hence, they cannot be banned," he said. "Kiev’s demands that international organizations should condemn elections in the LPR and DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) are absurd."

"Only a party that is interested in the breakdown of constructive accords and doesn’t want to implement the Minsk agreements can demand that elections in the Donbass republics be banned."

"The existence of legitimate authorities is a guarantee of constructive continuation of talks," he stressed. "For the past four and a half years, people living in Donbass have been stripped by the Kiev authorities of electoral rights within Ukraine’s legal terrain - both the president, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), local legislatures and heads of local administrations have been elected without participation of Donbass’ residents, which told on their outcomes."

"After Kiev unilaterally passed a new law on local elections, which ignores the interests of people living in Donbass, the republics made an attempt to hold local elections," he noted. "But abiding by the agreements and provisions of the Package of Measures we refused to do that and have been fulfilling these obligations up to now," Miroshnik stressed.