Ukraine in Arabic | Ukrainian region of Donbass got a special status
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed the law on a special local government order in some districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the presidential press service has reported.
"Document No. 1680-VII defines a temporary order of local government and the activity of local authorities in certain districts in Donetsk and Luhansk regions," the report says.
The main purpose is to create conditions for normalizing the situation as quickly as possible, restoring law and order, constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, returning residents to abandoned places of permanent residence, restoring life in cities, towns and villages and developing these areas. The rights and legitimate interests of legal persons are also to be restored.
A special order in these areas is introduced by the law temporarily, for three years from the date of its entry into force, the press service said.
According to the UN, some 3,500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation conducted since mid-April to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics (DPR and LPR).
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on cessation of fire and exchange of prisoners during talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk. The ceasefire took effect the same day but reports said it has occasionally been violated.
Ukraine’s parliament on September 16 granted a special self-rule status to certain districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions for three years. The Verkhovna Rada also passed a law on amnesty for participants of combat activities in Ukraine’s troubled eastern regions.
On September 20 in Minsk, the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum outlining the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5.
The document contains nine points, including in particular a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibers of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.