17 October 2014
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed on Oct. 16 the law establishing a special order of local governance in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The special order is established for three years and sets local elections for Dec. 7. It creates new legal conditions in addition to Ukrainian law in these regions and establishes the mechanism for the central state’s socio-economic support for these districts. The law also grants amnesty to those engaged in non-severe criminal activity during the armed conflict and establishes local police forces.
Zenon Zawada: it was important for the president to sign this law ahead of the Oct. 16-17 Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, during which extensive dialogues will be conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin. So far however, the ceasefire is a failure, the conditions of the self-governance zones haven’t been established and many questions about the Ukrainian government’s role remain murky.
For example, it’s still not clear whether financing for the zones will come from the state budget, as originally indicated by Poroshenko but then later denied by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The creation of the zones has been successful in containing the warfare to a particular territory but hasn’t provided stability within the zones themselves.