DPR head: statements of Poroshenko, Biden about local election in Donbas are 'inadequate'

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko has described Friday the statements of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US Vice President Joseph Biden as "inadequate" after they said that local election in Donbas scheduled for October 18 threaten the Minsk dialogue.

"The US Vice President has most likely not studied the issue thoroughly. I doubt that he has even read the Minsk Package of measures. And Poroshenko is distorting facts as usual," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Zakharchenko as saying.

"If Biden is really concerned about the future of the Minsk accords, than he should make Poroshenko and Groysman [Verkhovna Rada Speaker] implement them," Zakharchenko said. "Make them coordinate with DPR modality of elections and amendments to the constitution. Those are the requirements of Articles 4, 11, 12 of the Package of measures. It is precisely Ukraine that is running the Minsk process, avoiding dialogue and forcing upon us their unilateral unacceptable decisions. If Biden does not make Poroshenko establish dialogue, than it means that he supports him. And then the US will bear responsibility for disrupting negotiations and for the inevitable collapse of the Ukrainian statehood," the DPR head noted.

"The statements of Poroshenko and Biden that local election in DPR on October 18 threaten Minsk dialogue are inadequate," he added.

Kiev de facto exits Minsk accords

On Thursday, Zakharchenko said that Kiev’s recent unilateral actions on adopting amendments to Ukraine’s constitution serve as evidence that "the Kiev regime has de facto exited Minsk peace process." "Under the circumstances, the Donetsk People’s Republic has to start implementing the Minsk agreements itself in order to save them," the DPR head said, adding that the republic "starts acting immediately, without waiting for Kiev to come to its senses."

"Firstly, DPR announces that a special regime of self-governance is in force on its territory, some conditions of which are outlined in Ukraine’s law ‘on Donbas special status’, in Article 11 of the Package of measures [on implementing the Minsk accords], as well as in the draft amendments to the Ukrainian constitution that we proposed. Secondly, in accordance with Articles 4 and 12 of the Package of measures, I set local election on the DPR territory for October 18," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Zakharchenko’s statement as saying. Election will be organized in accordance with principal positions of Ukraine’s draft law on election developed by DPR and LPR (self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic) and handed over to the Contact Group in the framework of "dialogue on modality of holding local election," the statement read.

"In accordance with Article 12 of the Package of measures, local election in DPR on October 18 will be held in compliance with appropriate OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] standards under monitoring of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights [ODIHR] and other international organizations. The procedures of monitoring and work of observers were coordinated in the framework of the Contact Group," the statement stressed.

Minsk agreements on Ukraine

The Minsk accords on the Ukrainian settlement were signed on February 12, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The talks lasted for around 14 hours. Simultaneously, a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement was held in Minsk.

The Minsk agreements envisage ceasefire, heavy weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbas, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.

The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.