KIEV (Sputnik) — Last month, Ukraine held local elections. Prior to that, the country's breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk agreed to postpone their local elections until 2016. Before elections in those regions can take place, Ukrainian authorities must fulfill all Minsk agreement obligations.
Magera recalled the Kiev stance on the issue that the elections may be implemented only if certain conditions are fulfilled, including Kiev's control over the border.
"[I prefer] to adhere to a conservative point of view on the possibility of elections in this territories. To the full extent, the elections might be held there only in two or three years," Mager said in a Monday interview with the Ukrainian website Skeptic.
Ukraine's southeast has been engulfed in a military conflict since April 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation to suppress Donbass militia who expressed their dissatisfaction with the country’s coup-imposed government.
The Minsk peace deal, reached in February, included a truce, prisoner swaps and constitutional changes. Until recently showing signs of a lasting calm, the region saw repeated accusations of peace violations.
The self-proclaimed republics of Lugansk and Donetsk state that the decision to hold elections independent of Kiev was made after the Ukrainian government adopted new local election laws without first consulting them, which does not comply with the Minsk peace deal.
