DONETSK, October 17. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) will hold its own elections on November 2, despite the president’s move to sign a law on special self-rule status for eastern Ukraine’s regions, DPR’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko said on Friday.

“We will not perceive this law. This does not concern us as it is signed by the president of another country. We are set to hold elections on November 2. We are determined for independence. We believe that our territory has been illegally occupied,” Zakharchenko said.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Thursday signed a law granting special self-rule status to certain areas in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three years. The document is stipulated by agreements reached in the Belarusian capital Minsk in early September.

Boris Litvinov, who chairs the DPR’s parliament, the Supreme Council, also said on Friday that the self-proclaimed republic will go its own way despite the law on the special status.

DPR’s first deputy prime minister, Andrei Purgin, said the signing of the law by Ukraine’s president is a positive step, but it is unlikely to influence the political situation in the republic.

The law on the special status of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which was passed by the parliament in mid-September, guarantees the right to freely use and study Russian or any other language in Ukraine. It also states that local elections are to take place on December 7 to establish new councils in districts, cities and villages.