KIEV, November 4 (RIA Novosti) — The government in Kiev believes that the recent elections in eastern Ukraine have derailed any future talks between the two warring parties, a deputy chief of President Petro Poroshenko's staff said late on Monday.
Speaking on the Ukraina TV channel, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Valeriy Chaly accused the opposition forces in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region of "destroying the opportunity to talk."
"There are Donbas representatives and regional representatives in the parliament and we can talks with them, and how do you talk with those who destroys this opportunity?" Chaly said.
His statement came after President Poroshenko said on Monday he regarded a diplomatic way of settling the dispute with the southeast, also known as Donbas, as a "priority" solution. He also offered to adopt a new law on devolving power to the regions and decentralizing Ukraine if all parties stick to the Minsk protocol on peace.
On November 2, the regions voted in the presidential and parliamentary elections that Kiev said it would never recognize.
With 100 percent of ballot lists counted, acting Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko was confirmed as the official leader of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), while the candidacy of Igor Plotnitsky was backed in the adjacent Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). A deputy prime minister in Donetsk said the government was not going to void the results of the vote.
