In Donetsk and Lugansk postponing elections for an unknown period

Representatives of the so-called “people's republics” of Donbass Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego announced that they agreed to postpone the elections scheduled for October 18 and November 1 to next year.

This is stated in their statement on the website of the Donetsk News Agency.

Kiev considered the local elections in the LPR and the DPR to be a violation of the Minsk agreements, since their holding would not comply with Ukrainian legislation.

The “Normandy Four” - the presidents of Ukraine, Russia, France and the Chancellor of Germany - at their meetings also discussed the need to postpone the elections in the DPR and LPR.

Representatives of the unrecognized republics stressed that this decision - Investigation negotiations of the Normandy Four at the summit in Paris on October 2.

At the same time, Pushilin and Daneh declared that they insist on their participation in the drafting of the law on the special status of Donbass, as well as on the fact that before the local elections the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine would hold a new vote on amendments to the country's Constitution concerning decentralization, and Lugansk and Donetsk region.

Defusing tension?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the end of September that not a single member of the alliance would recognize elections in eastern Ukraine if they are not held according to general Ukrainian laws.

A compromise decision on elections can be an important part of the peace process and the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

On Saturday, October 3, the Ukrainian military announced the start of the withdrawal of weapons with caliber guns less than one hundred millimeters from the line of contact with the forces of the self-proclaimed people's republics in the east of the country.

The report of the headquarters of the special operation of the Ukrainian forces in the Donbass said that the withdrawal of equipment and artillery will take 41 a day and is coordinated with the OSCE.

Kiev noted that the start of the withdrawal of equipment and artillery allowed the representatives of the self-proclaimed republics to comply with the terms of the truce.

Elections to local authorities throughout Ukraine will be held on October 25 this year. The constitutional changes promised by the new Ukrainian government after the overthrow of Yanukovych and adopted by the Rada in September 2015 give much broader powers to self-government bodies in cities and regions and strengthen local authorities, reducing the role of Kyiv.

The military conflict in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 of the year and continues to this day. Militants control part of the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

February 15 2015 in the Donbass, according to the Minsk agreements, all parties to the conflict were announced truce, but to achieve a complete cease-fire failed. In a number of settlements in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the fighting continued, but from September 1 in the Donbas established the most peaceful for all the time of the fighting situation.

In the last report, which the UN published in early September, spoke of the 7883 dead and the 17087 injured in the Donbas.