KIEV, November 4 (RIA Novosti) — The abolition of the law on the special status of Donbas does not mean rejection of the Minsk agreements, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated Tuesday at a meeting.
"I want to emphasize that it [the law] does not mean the cancellation of Minsk agreements, on the contrary, we will be ready to adopt a new law under the circumstances where we will see a ceasefire, the withdrawal of troops from the line of contact… in accordance with the Minsk Protocol of September 5," Poroshenko said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) welcomed the decision of Kiev’s authorities to abolish the law, as it "was just covering aggressive plans of Kiev," Donetsk Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin said.
On the same day, a draft law proposed by Petro Poroshenko and aimed at abolishing the Donbas special status was submitted to the Ukrainian parliament.
The law on self-administration in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, also known as the Donbas, was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on September 16, following the September 5 ceasefire agreement between Kiev and independence supporters of eastern Ukraine.
According to the deal, Kiev was obliged to ensure early local elections in the two breakaway regions.
On Sunday, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics held elections for the heads of local governments and representatives of legislative bodies.
Following the vote, President Poroshenko said that Ukraine will never recognize the elections' results and announced his plans to submit the abolition of the law granting special status to the Donbas Region to Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
