Ukraine’s Poroshenko Submits Donbass Special Status Bill

Date: 15 March 2015 - 21:22

News ID: ۱۲۰۹۲

KIEV (PRESS TV) – Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has submitted a draft resolution to parliament that would grant special status to outlined parts in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
The draft law was registered into the database of the parliament on Saturday.
The specified area that would receive special status had been outlined by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council two days earlier.
Mykhaylo Koval, the Council’s deputy secretary, said the special status law would only apply to regions seized by pro-Russia forces on September 19, 2014 and any areas captured afterward would not be included.
The Ukrainian lawmakers are expected to vote on the draft on March 17 or 18.
The parliamentary vote will come after the March 14 deadline set under the Minsk ceasefire agreement, according to which the Ukrainian parliament should have adopted the draft indicating the specified self-governed areas.
Previous failure to approve the bill prompted the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic to urge the guarantors of the Minsk deal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, to exert pressure on Kiev to abide by the agreement.
East Ukraine ceasefire deal
The two warring sides, Kiev and pro-Russia forces in the eastern regions of Ukraine, reached a ceasefire last month following peace talks in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, on February 11-12 between the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.
Back in September 2014, the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk signed another ceasefire deal in Minsk. However, the truce was violated on an almost daily basis by both the Ukrainian military and the pro-Russia forces and thus failed to deliver any practical result.
Source of conflict
Donetsk and Lugansk are two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, which have been hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations in April last year to crush pro-Russia protests there.
In May 2014, the situation in the two flashpoint regions started to worsen as the residents overwhelmingly voted for independence from Ukraine in referendums.