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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Donetsk Republic establishes national bank

DONETSK, October 8. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine has established a national bank, the DPR Supreme Council and government said in a statement after a meeting of the DPR Council of Ministers.

“A number of decisions important for the republic’s vital activity were adopted at a meeting of the DPR Council of Ministers that took place October 6, 2014. First of all, the principles of the National Bank’s operation were approved and the bank started working,” the statement said.

DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko told a TASS correspondent September 1 that the DPR leadership will not introduce a new currency in the republic.

The DPR “will have a multi-currency zone where both hryvnias and Russian rubles will be in circulation.”

The UN says some 3,500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the DPR and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR).

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on cessation of fire during talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk.

Ukraine’s parliament on September 16 granted a special self-rule status to certain districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions for three years. Elections to local self-government bodies were set for December 7.

The DPR and LPR will elect their heads and lawmakers in November.

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Eastern Ukraine

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