KIEV (Sputnik) – The country’s parliament on Thursday passed a law that would allow Ukrainian authorities to hold special operations in the “occupied” territories of eastern Ukraine, namely the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics.
The Ukrainian parliament decided to postpone giving special status to Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions until elections were held in Donbass under the Ukrainian law, despite the Minsk agreement on Ukrainian reconciliation reached by the international mediators on February 12.
Granting special status to Ukraine's southeast regions of Donetsk and Lugansk was one of the key points of the deal signed by both Kiev authorities and independence supporters.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the law, passed by the Verkhovna Rada and signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was a gross violation of the Minsk peace agreements.
