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Ukrainian lawmaker says elections in Donbass unlikely to be held this year

Elections will be held after we change the constitution and after decentralization, leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction told

KIEV, March 16. /TASS/. Local elections in Donbass are unlikely to be held this year, a Ukrainian lawmaker said on Monday.

"Elections will be held after we change the constitution and after decentralization," Yuri Lutsenko, the leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, told the ICTV television channel.

He said elections in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions could be held "only after the restoration of Ukrainian laws there."

On Friday, March 13, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said elections in Donbass should take place after the situation there normalized. "The Ukrainian authorities must resume their activity in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, new local elections must be held there," he said in an interview with the Ukrainian television channel One Plus One.

"But these elections are to be help when conditions are ripe for free and democratic elections. No elections will be held until these conditions are met," he said.