![The [ceasefire] protocol, as you noticed, does not mention the so-called DNR and LNR, the ministry’s spokesman, Yevhen Perebiynis, told reporters. - Sputnik International](https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/18858/77/188587753_0:76:2560:1523_600x0_80_0_0_f244159fcd78b84fddafd791f6e30eac.jpg "The [ceasefire] protocol, as you noticed, does not mention the so-called DNR and LNR, the ministry’s spokesman, Yevhen Perebiynis, told reporters.")
Updated 06:28 p.m. Moscow Time
KIEV, September 9 (RIA Novosti) — Kiev refuses to recognize self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s republics in eastern Ukraine despite the signing of a ceasefire agreement with independence supporters last week, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.
«The [ceasefire] protocol, as you noticed, does not mention the so-called DNR and LNR," the ministry’s spokesman, Yevhen Perebiynis, told reporters.
«Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky [DNR and LNR leaders] signed the protocol without specifying their posts, therefore, the fact of signing does not mean recognition of these illegal entities," Perebiynis said.
Representatives of Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine met on September 5 in the Belarusian capital of Minsk and agreed to a ceasefire.
Some critics of the current Kiev regime have claimed that the ceasefire was the sign of political weakness and readiness to recognize the breakaway regions.
The participants of the contact group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis signed a protocol consisting of 12 provisions that entails adoption by Ukraine of the law on special status for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in addition to holding early elections.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday Moscow expects that negotiations will begin soon regarding the status of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
