KIEV, October 27. /TASS/. Local elections in Donbass are still some way off, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said on Thursday speaking to Ukraine’s Channel 24.
"The organization of local elections in Donbass depends on conformity to the conditions of security and I believe these elections are still some way off.
He refrained from making a forecast for a possible date of voting on the territories of the self-proclaimed unrecognized Donetsk and Lugansk republics. "It would be a sheer speculation to say, for instance that the election will be held in a year or two."
Klimkin declined to answer a question on whether or not Ukraine needed elections in Donbass.
He also said Ukraine would control the Donbass section of its border with Russia after the elections in Donetsk and Lugansk republics under provisions of Minsk accords.
"The logic of the Minsk accords presupposes Ukraine will get control over the border only after elections in the parts of Donbass not controlled (by the Kiev government - TASS)," Klimkin said.
He indicated that a plan for the handover of control over the border was to be drafted prior to the election.
"The handover of control over the border to the Ukrainian border guards will take place the next day after elections," Klimkin said. "This logic was embedded in the Minsk accords initially."
President Pyotr Poroshenko said earlier the implementation of the political block of the Minsk accords would follow completion of the entire security block.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the leaders embraced by the Normandy Four format, believes Ukraine should get control over its own border at the end of process, or after the elections.