MOSCOW, August 12./TASS/. At a videoconference held on Wednesday by the political subgroup of the Contact Group on the settlement in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian side confirmed that local elections in Donbas should be regulated by a separate law of Ukraine, a source close to negotiations said.
"The Ukrainian side has confirmed that local elections in Donbas must be regulated by a special separate law, and not by the Ukrainian law on local elections passed in July of this year," the source told the LuhanskInformCenter news agency.
According to him, a next videoconference of the political subgroup could be held on August 19.
Speaking about the Wednesday videoconference, the head of the Centre for Regional Security and Caucasus Studies at the Moscow state institute of international relations MGIMO, Nikolay Silayev, noted that Kiev was still refusing to implement a law on a special status for Donbas.
"There was one issue on the agenda — putting into effect the law on a special status of a part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," he said at a roundtable at Tass news agency.
"The problems remain the same. Although the Package of Measures of February 12 envisages enactment of this law, the Ukrainian side is practically refusing to comply with this key point," Silayev said.
He said this stalled the implementation of other points of the agreement — "passing a law on amnesty, holding local elections as well as a constitutional reform".