LUGANSK, November 16. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic /LPR/ will sign no agreement with Kiev until Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decree on economic blockade of Donbass is not cancelled, head of the LPR People’s Council Alexei Karyakin said on Sunday.
“By his decree, Poroshenko has completely withdrawn Ukraine from the Minsk dialogue,” he said. “This decree not merely violates concrete provisions of the Minsk protocol, it is absolutely non-constructive and aggressive in its spirit. It once again proves that Ukraine’s participation in the peace process is a cynical imitation and deceit. That is why the Lugansk People’s Republic will sign no new resolution of the tripartite group as long as this barbaric act is in force.”
Karyakin urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Russia to exert pressure on Poroshenko to have him cancel the decree.
The decree on November 15 has it, in particular, that the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) should adopt a bill on recognizing invalid the law on a special self-rule status in certain parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as well as other instructions to the country’s ministries and agencies related to operation of social and economic structures in Donbass.
The authorities of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics said this decree was actually “an act of genocide designed to impoverish and destroy the people.”
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at OSCE-mediated talks on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine.
The ceasefire took effect the same day but reportedly has occasionally been violated.
On September 19 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.
The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometres from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.