Updated 4:57 p.m. Moscow time
DONETSK, September 9 (RIA Novosti) – The self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR) lay claim to whole territories of their respective administrative regions within Ukraine, Donetsk People’s Republic Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko said Tuesday.
Yuriy Lutsenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, said Monday that Kiev was ready to grant “special status” to areas currently under control of the militia, which make up roughly one third of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk administrative regions combined.
“We thank Lutsenko for his generous offer, but we will somehow manage to sort out issues on our territory ourselves,” Zakharchenko said. “DPR is the whole Donetsk Region, and LPR is the whole Luhansk region.”
On September 5, a Contact Group on Ukraine comprising the representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) met in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in an attempt to find a solution to the Ukrainian crisis.
As a result of the meeting, Kiev and independence supporters agreed to a ceasefire that came into force at 6 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT) on the same day. The sides also agreed to the international monitoring of the truce’s implementation, the exchange of all prisoners and the opening of humanitarian corridors.
The participants of the contact group on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis signed a protocol consisting of 12 provisions. The protocol entails adoption by Ukraine of the law on special status for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in addition to holding early elections.
