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Ukraine’s Constitutional Court rules draft decentralization amendments are constitutional

The constitutional reform in Ukraine is a basic requirement envisaged in the package of measures for implementing peace accords signed in Minsk, Belarus, on February 12

KIEV, July 31. /TASS/. The Constitutional Court of Ukraine has ruled that the draft constitutional amendments concerning decentralization do not run counter to Articles 157 and 158 of the country’s Constitution, Deputy Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Vasily Brintsev told a court hearing on Friday.

"The Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that the draft law on amendments to Ukraine’s Constitution regarding decentralization conforms to the requirements of Articles 157 and 158 of the Ukrainian Constitution," he said.

On Monday, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine began to consider the draft constitutional amendments endorsed by the Ukrainian President and the Verkhovna Rada. The constitutional reform in Ukraine is a basic requirement envisaged in the package of measures for implementing peace accords signed in Minsk, Belarus, on February 12.

In accordance with this document, Ukraine needs to adopt the new Constitution before the end of the year, which provides for decentralization as a key element taking into consideration the interests of separate regions of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions coordinated with representatives of these regions and a permanent legislation on a special status for separate regions of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Envoys of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics (DPR, LPR) have said that the draft constitutional amendments prepared by Kiev did not correspond to the Minsk agreements, since they were not coordinated with representatives of the two republics and were considered "neither by the working group on political issues nor the Contact Group. "To date, they in no way conform to the Minsk peace process. They must be cancelled," said LPR envoy Vladislav Deynego.

The need to reach an agreement on the status of the Donbas region during the constitutional reform have been repeatedly noted by the leaders of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine).