MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The statement also said that Ukrainian parties responsible for the military operation and the economic blockade, as well as for warmongering propaganda and ethnic hatred, would not be allowed to run in the local elections in Donbass.
“The elections will be held only after the military operation is over and a bill on amnesty for the militia and political activists of Donbass is adopted,” said a statement, released by the Donetsk News Agency.
The regions refused to recognize the new Ukrainian government that had come to power in February 2014, what they considered to be a coup, and held their own elections on November 2, 2014. Kiev and the West refused to recognize the results of these elections.
Apart from the truce, the agreement stipulated constitutional reforms decentralizing power, as well as granting special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by the end of 2015.
Despite the agreement reached in Minsk, the Ukrainian parliament decided to postpone the extension of special status to Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions until elections that are to be held in Donbass according to Ukrainian law.
