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Poroshenko intends to submit issue to annul law on Donbass special status

“We will be ready to adopt a new law when all parties return to implementing the Minsk protocol,” Poroshenko said

© TASS/Mikhail Palinchak

KIEV, November 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Monday he intended to submit an issue to the National Security and Defence Council to annul the law on the special status for Donbass (Donetsk and Lugansk regions).

“In due time this law played an extremely important role,” Poroshenko said in an address placed on his website.

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The law demonstrated “Ukraine’s sincere intentions to de-escalate the situation in Donbass and the world support for the Minsk peace agreements”, he said.

“We will be ready to adopt a new law when all parties return to implementing the Minsk protocol if fire is ceased, the buffer zone is created and control is established,” Poroshenko said.

The new law can be adopted if the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics “reverse” the elections held on November 2, he said.

“The new law will envision strict borders of the regions with the special procedure of local self-government in strict compliance with the Minsk agreements. It will also envision budget decentralisation, which removes irritating problems - who feeds whom. It will allow the regions themselves to be responsible for their financing based on their own resources,” Poroshenko said.

At the same time, the president said he hoped for the International Monetary Fund’s support for restoring Donbass.

Sooner or later Poroshenko also intends “to propose the parliament to adopt a law on creating a free economic zone there (in Donbass) with the special trading regime with the EU and Russia”.

Views on elections in east Ukraine around the world

The first elections of Presidents and legislators in the DPR and LPR was watched by representatives of the US, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and some other countries. They said upon the end of voting they had not seen any major violations and the elections stood fully in line with European electoral practices.

The government in Kiev speaks about illegitimacy of elections in the two unrecognized republics, with the US and the EU supporting the claim. EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini said the EU had no plans to recognize the outcome of the elections in East Ukraine.

The US, which said the elections contradicted the letter and spirit of the Ukrainian Constitution and the September 5 Minsk accords, condemned the fact they had been organized.

In contrast to the West, Russia believes that Sunday’s voting in the two self-proclaimed republics marked an encouraging step towards reconciliation in Ukraine. On the eve of the voting, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in an official statement the elections complied with the Minsk accords and offered a chance to put the situation in southeastern Ukraine to the track of a fruitful dialogue.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was ready to recognize the results of elections that “have importance in what concerns power legitimization.

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