KIEV (Sputnik) – Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday the two-year Ukraine crisis could only be resolved by providing the Lugansk and Donetsk regions with special constitutional status and decentralized power.
"The Minsk agreements expressly stipulate the withdrawal of occupation forces from the whole Ukrainian territory, restoring Ukrainian control of the state border, bringing in an armed OSCE international police mission… Only then, according to the Ukrainian legislation, with international observers, the participation of Ukrainian parties, with security measures, when we protect everyone and allow in Ukrainian media, will we hold elections that clearly meet the international standards of the OSCE," Poroshenko stressed.
Speaking at events commemorating the state border guard service, Poroshenko maintained that "there will be nothing else, I insist on it."
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine's southeast (Donbass) in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between the two sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, a weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to DPR and LPR.
Under the Minsk peace deal, constitutional reforms aimed at decentralizing power in Ukraine and the initiation of local elections in Donbass should have been concluded before the end of 2015.
The country's 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 their obligations under the Minsk peace accords.
