"The main criteria for using amnesty in accordance with this law are insignificant danger of crimes committed by sentenced people as well as objective factors – severe disease and elderly age," the explanatory note of the amnesty law said.
The law was passed with 226 out of 450 lawmakers having voted for it. That is the minimal number of votes needed for passing the bill.
The Donbass region has been in turmoil since April 2014, when authorities in Kiev launched a military operation against pro-independence militias in Donbas. In February 2015, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine – the so-called Normandy Format – in the Belarusian capital, Minsk.
The deal stipulates withdrawal of weapons from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms that would confer special status on the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. Both sides in the conflict, however, have consistently accused each other of violating the ceasefire terms.
