DONETSK, November 4. /TASS/. One of the leaders of the Donetsk Republic movement which has won at the November 2 elections Denis Pushilin finds Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s plan to cancel the law on Donbass special status ‘hysteria’.
“This looks more like Kiev’s hysteria. The point is that elections passed with a high voter turnout and all observers noted that polls were valid. In this situation, Kiev will exert different types of pressure. We are waiting for a meeting of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, but hope that Kiev politicians will have enough common sense to start talks with leaders of the Donetsk People’s Republic which people placed trust in,” Pushilin said.
He added that he called for building relations with Kiev based on talks, but he was convinced that authorities of the self-proclaimed republic should primarily focus on domestic problems, including state construction, creation of jobs, preparation for winter and payment of social allowances. “I also call for continued coal trade with Ukraine. This is operation of our enterprises, new jobs, this is essentially nothing but foreign economic trade ties,” Pushilin said.
Petro Poroshenko said in his address to Ukrainian citizens on Monday that he planned to submit for consideration in the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council the issue of cancelling the law on special status of regions over the November 2 polls which Ukrainian authorities did not recognize as legitimate.
Poroshenko noted that Kiev was ready to enact a new law on Donbass special status which will draw clear-cut borders of districts with special local self-rule status. However, among conditions for enacting the new law Poroshenko named steps which the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics should take that would mean ‘a retreat’ in the issue of the November 2 polls.