KIEV, November 3 (RIA Novosti) — Ukraine is ready to adopt a new law on decentralization in Donbas "when all the sides go back to fulfilling the Minsk Protocol" and if the independence supporters of eastern Ukraine reconsider November 2 elections results, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Monday.
"Decentralization remains at our disposal as a key element for political settlement in Donbas. We will be ready to adopt a new law – when all the sides go back to fulfilling the Minsk Protocol, the buffer zone is created and control from abroad is established. And clear steps [are undertaken] signifying that the rebels [independence supporters of Eastern Ukraine] are reconsidering the [results] of the so-called elections of November 2," Poroshenko said in a statement, published on his official website.
"The new law will establish clear boundaries of the regions with special order of local self-governing in strict accordance with the Minsk agreements. And the budget decentralization which addresses those irritative questions like who feeds whom. It will allow these regions to be responsible for their own funding with the use of their own resources," Poroshenko added.
The crisis in Ukraine's eastern regions escalated when Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence supporters in eastern Ukraine in mid-April. The conflicting sides reached a ceasefire agreement at a September 5 meeting of the trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk. A memorandum specifying the implementation of the ceasefire was adopted at another Contact Group meeting on September 19.
On Sunday, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics held elections for the heads of the local governments and representatives of the legislative bodies.
