German FM Wants to Discuss Draft Law on Donbas Elections in Normandy Format

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed hope Wednesday that the draft bill on local elections in Ukraine's Donbas region will be discussed between the Normandy Four foreign ministers after the bill's preparation is completed.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — Steinmeier made the remarks in Berlin after negotiations with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin.

"I hope that we will prepare the grounds for the Normandy Four [foreign ministers] to meet and discuss the bill on local elections," he told journalists.

According to the German foreign minister, the meeting of the Normandy Four in Berlin on May 11 was "better than the previous", but was not "good enough to come significantly closer to the implementtion of the Minsk deal."

In April 2014 Kiev started a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup in February that year.

In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France. The Minsk deal, among other points, stipulated holding local elections in Donbas before the end of 2015. However, in October, Donetsk and Luhansk agreed to postpone their local elections until 2016. The elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic are now set to be held on July 24.