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LPR envoy blasts Ukraine’s bill as signaling refusal to comply with Minsk deals

The envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic to the Contact Group’s political subgroup, Rodion Miroshnik is confident that the bill would mean infringement on the civil and political rights of the Donbass residents, on their life and freedom

LUGANSK, August 5./TASS/. A law on transitional justice means in practice Ukraine’s refusal to comply with the Minsk agreements, the envoy of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to the Contact Group’s political subgroup, Rodion Miroshnik, said on Thursday.

He reiterated that at a session of the Ukrainian government on Wednesday, a bill ‘On basic principles of the state policy in the transitional period’ was approved. "This discriminatory bill demonstrates true intentions of the Kiev authorities towards the population of Donbass and implies de-facto the refusal to comply with the commitments under the Minsk agreements and participate in the talks whatsoever," the LPR envoy believes.

He is confident that the bill would mean infringement on the civil and political rights of the Donbass residents, on their life and freedom. "In case Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passes the bill, any talks with Kiev on the implementation of the Minsk agreements will become senseless, since the bill violates practically all without exception points of the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements and does not envisage coordination of any rules of the future life of the territories with the other side in the conflict," he added.

Miroshnik said that if the law on transitional justice was passed, all that would be left to do for the participants in the Normandy format talks, now without Ukraine, was to work out a package of sanctions against Kiev and discuss this issue at the UN Security Council.

He also drew stressed that the document did not envisage granting the Donbass territories not under Kiev’s control either a special status or the language autonomy or a special mode of cross-border cooperation with Russian regions, envisaged in the Minsk agreements.

The bill envisages the abolishment of the law ‘On amnesty’ that has not taken effect in Ukraine, criminal prosecution of the leadership of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics, employees of local and republican government authorities and law enforcement agencies, as well as people’s militias.

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