Ukraine parliament extends Donbas special order

Ukraine’s parliament
approved on Oct. 4 a bill that extends for a year the special order of local
self-governance in the separate territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The legislation was requested by Western authorities, including the OSCE and
the U.S. State Department. It was signed by President  Poroshenko the same
day.

The legislation,
initially adopted in September 2014, calls for the conditions of the special order, including
holding local elections, to be implemented upon the fulfillment of the Minsk
Accords. Yet the Donetsk and Luhansk self-declared governments are planning
elections for Nov. 11, in violation of the accords. “Russia must also cancel
sham, illegal elections in Russia-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk – completely
contrary to Minsk agreements,” tweeted Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy to
Ukraine.

Zenon Zawada: We expect the local elections will
be held on Nov. 11 in violation of the Minsk Accords. That will likely postpone
any peace negotiations, whether among the Normandy Four or the Trilateral
Contact Group in Minsk, until 2020, after presidential and parliamentary
elections are held in Ukraine.