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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Donetsk, Luhansk republics eye common economic space

The leader of self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko believes future relations will become more structured already after the New Year when the external tensions subside

© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

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Donetsk to build mutually beneficial ties with neighbours — republican leader

DONETSK, December 26. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics could work out an agreement on a common economic space early next year, DPR’s leader Alexander Zakharchenko said on Friday.

“I think that our future relations will become more structured already after the New Year, when the external tensions subside,” Zakharchenko said in an interview with the official Donetsk news agency.

These will be legal acts on friendship and cooperation, and also on a common economic space at the level of the republics' parliaments, the People’s Councils, Zakharchenko said.

The Donetsk and Luhansk republics already enjoy a free customs zone, he said.

Zakharchenko said he has good relations with the leader of the neighboring LPR, Igor Plotnitsky. “I have perfect ties with Plotnitsky, I know him very well,” he said, adding that the LPR leader is having tough times now.

The DPR leader also said the republic is planning on building partnership relations with its neighbors, stressing that establishing political and economic ties with Kiev mainly depends on Ukraine’s authorities.

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