Donbas Delivers Ultimatum to Kiev: No Compromise on Republics' Status

Eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed republics ruled out compromise with Kiev authorities after Tuesday's decision made by Petro Poroshenko and the country's parliament to postpone giving DPR and LPR special status as well as to declare areas under their control “temporarily occupied.”

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The authorities from the eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics said in a statement that it was impossible to compromise with Kiev after the president and the parliament made unilateral decisions on the status of the eastern regions.

On Tuesday, Poroshenko and the Ukrainian parliament made several decisions on the status of the country’s eastern regions. The parliament decided to postpone the long-awaited decision of giving the two eastern regions special status until elections under Ukrainian law are held. Verkhovna Rada also declared areas under the control of the DPR and LPR “temporarily occupied.”

“The DPR and LPR announce that there can be no compromises with Kiev until yesterday’s shameful decisions by [Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko and the Verkhovna Rada are changed,” DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky were quoted as stating on the Luhansk Information Center’s website.

“Having accepted the documents that were not agreed with us, Kiev has shown its inability to negotiate,” the leaders’ statement reads.

Granting special status to parts of the DPR and the LPR was one of key points of the agreement signed by both Kiev authorities and independence supporters in Minsk in February.