Ukraine’s Poroshenko: ‘Special status’ may be granted to Donetsk, Luhansk regions
At the same time, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko states that the Minsk protocol does not envisage the federalisation or alienation of Donbas.
A peace roadmap agreed last week between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists preserves the concept of a sovereign, united country within its current borders, Poroshenko said on Wednesday.
The president is to submit to parliament next week a draft law that will grant a special status to some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which are currently controlled by the separatists.
At that, the signing in Minsk on September 5 by the Trilateral Contact Group of a protocol on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine does not mean the legitimisation of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said on Tuesday.
“These agreements were reached on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The protocol does not mention the so-called DPR and LPR, and citizens Zakharchenko [DPR ‘Prime Minister’ Alexander Zakharchenko] and Plotnitsky [LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky] signed the protocol with no indication of their positions, so the signing of this protocol does not mean the legitimization of these illegal groups,” he said.
Leaders of the DPR and the LPR believe the two self-proclaimed republics have a right for self-determination.“Ukraine will be trying to keep us as part of their area, but we will be following our course toward self-determination,” Andrey Purgin, Deputy Prime Minister of the co called DPR, said on Tuesday.
