UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Russia submitted on Thursday to the UN Security Council a draft resolution on the implementation of Minsk agreements aimed at peaceful settlement of the crisis in eastern Ukraine, Russia's envoy to UN, Vitaly Churkin, said.
"We have circulated a very concise draft resolution," Churkin said after the UNSC closed doors discussions of the reconciliation process in Ukraine.
Churkin said the document is aimed at reiterating the need to fully implement the Minsk agreements of February 12, including the points in regard to self-administration and local elections in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The UN Security Council convened on Thursday for an extraordinary session after Russia called on the security body to look into Ukraine's failure to deliver on its February commitments.
The Russian UN envoy said a special status was to be granted to parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in two stages. Kiev was first to earmark particular districts that would be liable for a special status within Ukraine, and then to amend the constitution and negotiate the final and permanent legislation on special status for these areas with their representatives.
But Churkin stressed Kiev went another way by "branding these lands as 'occupied territories,' and thus stripping them of any status whatsoever within Ukraine."
The status of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces is part of a 13-point roadmap aimed at settling the crisis in southeastern Ukraine. It envisages a constitutional overhaul and eventual decentralization of Ukraine by the end of 2015.
