KIEV, October 14. /TASS/. Chairman of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Oleksandr Turchynov on Tuesday signed the draft law on special self-rule status to certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The draft law was submitted to the president for signing, the Ukrainian parliament’s website said.

In September the Ukrainian parliament passed a law granting a special self-rule status for certain districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. A total of 277 lawmakers in the 450-member parliament voted in favor of the legislation, proposed by President Petro Poroshenko. The required minimum of votes to pass a law in Ukraine is 226.

The special status for Donbass is designed for three years, Poroshenko said.

“During this time we will have an opportunity to turn into reality the issues of deep decentralisation which should be also the issue for amending the Constitution,” he said.

The special status law was stipulated by the Minsk agreements reached in early September in the Belarusian capital on the basis of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s seven-point plan proposed two days before.