Presidential administration calls for renewing special order in Donbas

Iryna Lutsenko, the president’s representative to
Ukraine’s parliament, called upon MPs on Oct. 1 to approve the renewal of the
law on a special order of local self-governance in the separate territories of
Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as is being requested by Western governments. The
law enabled sanctions to be approved by the West, provides the foundation for
forming a potential U.N. peacekeeping mission and has drawn U.S. support in the
form of military hardware and financing, she said. “This is not yet peace, but
it’s already not war,” she said. The law, first adopted in September 2014 for
three years, requires renewal on an annual basis.

A longtime opponent to the law, Parliamentary Vice
Speaker Oksana Syroyid, repeated her criticisms in Radio NV in September that
the law is “damaging and dangerous,” with the potential to tear Ukraine apart
from within. For four years, the government hasn’t proposed a better
alternative to the conditions of the Minsk Accords, which she called “a fake
solution.” At the Oct. 1 session, Syroyid – of the pro-Western Self-Reliance
party – called for rejecting the measure.

Martin Sajdik, the OSCE representative to the
Trilateral Contact Group, sent a letter in August to parliament asking for its
renewal by October.

Zenon Zawada: We expect
the law will be renewed this month.