President Petro Poroshenko emphasizes that the elections in Donbas can be considered only under the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
At the same time, the President noted that the progress in the settlement of the situation in Donbas “is almost zero, on the contrary, there was escalation there”.
“Can the elections in Donbas be held? Yes. Can they be held now? Yes. If they are held by the occupant,” the Head of State noted at the press conference answering the question about the possibility of holding the elections in Donbas already in 2016.
“Neither we, nor the world will recognize these elections. Just as we didn’t recognize the fake elections of November 2, 2014. Just as we do not recognize the referendum in Crimea,” Petro Poroshenko said.
The President noted that the elections provided for by the Minsk agreements could be held. But they will be held when the mechanism of restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty over certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is ensured.
“Logics of the Minsk agreements provides for the implementation of the security component at first. And only then, the political component enters into force,” the President stressed adding that those conditions should also be accompanied by the humanitarian component of the agreements.
According to the Head of State, the security component of the Minsk agreements does not only provide for the ceasefire. It is not enough. Efficient permanent observation posts on must be deployed on the touch line in order to guarantee the fulfillment of the security provisions. At the same time, respective posts of international forces must be deployed in the areas of weapons storage and the uncontrolled area of the Ukraine-Russia border.
The President emphasized that there had been a proposal earlier for the OSCE SMM to establish such posts. However, both OSCE drones have been recently shot down by the occupation troops. These drones allowed monitoring of ceasefire violations by the separatists. Therefore, the President has raised an issue on the deployment of the OSCE armed police mission that will ensure the security criteria in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The Head of State reminded that Ukraine had offered that model six months ago already. However, it has been rejected. “Today, we have a serious diplomatic success in this issue. We have agreed the deployment of this mission not only in the Normandy format at the highest level. Our German partners have started the discussion of that issue in the OSCE, in Vienna,” the President noted.
“It gives me a solid reason for cautious optimism. And it served as a basis for the statement that we will probably finish this process in 2016,” the President said. At the same time, the Head of State regrets that already three months have passed since that statement. But the process is pretty active.
The President noted that the concept of electoral legislation would be Ukrainian.
Petro Poroshenko thanked Head of OPORA Civic Network Olga Ayvazovska for the assistance in the elaboration of the given concept.
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