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Ukraine’s parliament not poised to vote for Poroshenko’s constitutional amendments — MP

The draft will be sent to the Constitutional Court

Ukraine's parliament Maxim Nikitin/TASS

Ukraine's parliament

© Maxim Nikitin/TASS

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Special status for some areas of Donbas to be fixed in Ukraine's Constitution — media

KIEV, July 16. /TASS/. Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is not set to vote for the constitutional amendments submitted by President Petro Poroshenko and this draft will be sent to the Constitutional Court, an MP from the Poroshenko Bloc faction said on Thursday.

"Today the Rada will not vote for the Constitution. The Rada will vote for a procedural decision on sending the draft to the Constitutional Court for a conclusion to be made," Sergey Leschenko wrote on his Facebook page.

"Today the parliament will perform the function of a postman - it will put the draft amendments into an envelope, put a stamp and send it to the Constitutional Court," he added.

Poroshenko to attend parliament session

Petro Poroshenko is due to take part in Thursday’s session of the country’s parliament, his press service said.

"On Thursday, July 16, President Petro Poroshenko will participate in the plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada," the statement reads.

Earlier, Poroshenko revised and submitted to the parliament the constitutional amendments on July 15 to confirm in its main text the special status of the Donbas areas in Ukraine’s southeast not under Kiev’s control. The updated draft was published on the Ukrainian parliament’s website.

In the draft amendments introduced on July 1, the provision that the status of certain areas in Donbas is defined by a special law was included in the transitional articles of the bill on amendments. The updated version puts this provision in the transitional articles of the Constitution itself.

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