UNITED NATIONS, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk should be held on November 9 and that those elected "should not be Russian citizens as was the case before."
According to Klimkin, the "real representatives", elected at the local poll in Donetsk and Luhansk "should not be Russian citizens as was the case before."
"Decentralization is part of the Presidential peace plan," Klimkin told reporters, adding that Kiev proposes to hold local elections in Donetsk and Luhansk on November 9.
"We are ready to give the people of Donetsk and Luhansk more freedom, but also more responsibility, to be able at least to talk about the engagement of local police but also other order authorities," Klimkin said.
The key, Klimkin said Monday "is to not let Donetsk and Luhansk become any sort of frozen conflict." To do this, he said, "one key precondition for that is to hold local elections, to legally elect the real representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk, who should be Ukrainian and should be ready to take responsibility."
Kiev authorities and independence supporters aligned positions on a ceasefire and a number of issues, concerning the status of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on September 5 in the capital of Belarus, Minsk, through the mediation of Russia and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Further to the Minsk Protocol, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved a law on special status of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on September 16. The law introduces self-administration and guarantees the right to use Russian or any other language in Ukraine.
