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Donetsk authorities pledge to address issues of economic recovery

Donetsk cannot ignore Kiev, but it separates military and political spheres of relations with Ukraine’s authorities, one of the leaders of the movement Donetsk Republic Denis Pushilin said

MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. Newly elected authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have promised to address issues of the economic recovery in the region, separating military and political spheres of relations with authorities in Kiev.

Denis Pushilin, one of the leaders of the movement Donetsk Republic which won Sunday’s elections to the DPR legislature, said on Tuesday it was impossible to postpone the vote until December 7, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had proposed, considering a wide range of pressing issues to be addressed ahead of the winter heating season.

“The heating season has already begun, and there is no time to wait until Kiev starts to solve these problems,” Pushilin told Rossiya-24 TV news channel, adding that the authorities in Donetsk currently had to settle the economic situation in general, as well as raise wages and social benefits.

The new government “cannot ignore Kiev, but it separates military and political spheres” of relations with Ukraine’s authorities, he said.

Ready for dialogue

The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics said in a joint statement on Monday they were ready to hold dialogue with Kiev and restore relations with Ukrainian regions, including over coal supplies.

“We are open for continuing the dialogue. But this dialogue should be equal. We will be ready to restore relations with Ukrainian regions and to sign agreements with the cabinet of ministers, enterprises and organizations of Ukraine,” the republics’ authorities said, adding that they were also ready to supply coal to Ukrainian regions to normalize the situation in the heating season.

“We need cooperation in supplies of electric energy, agricultural products, in the fields of transport, communications and export-oriented productions. Our economy will work in the hryvnia zone if Kiev stops its financial blockade,” the statement said.

Results of elections in eastern Ukraine

The November 2 elections of the Prime Minister and deputies of the People’s Assembly in Donetsk brought victory to the incumbent Prime Minister, Alexander Zakharchenko, and the Donetsk Republic popular movement he heads.

In another self-proclaimed semi-state entity, the Luhansk People’s Republic, elections were won by the current Prime Minister, Igor Plotnitsky, and his Mir Luhanshchine (Peace for Luhansk Region) public movement.

The government in Kiev speaks about illegitimacy of elections in the two unrecognized republics, with the US and the EU supporting the claim. President Poroshenko said on Monday he intended to submit the issue to the National Security and Defense Council to annul the law on the special status for Donbass.

In contrast to the West, Russia believes that Sunday’s voting in the two self-proclaimed republics marked an encouraging step towards reconciliation in Ukraine, considering that the elected leaders “have enough powers to develop a stable and wide-ranging dialogue with Kiev authorities”.