KYIV. Nov 5 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko believes the law on specifics of local self-government in some areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions must be repealed.
"I am sure that the National Security and Defense Council and the Verkhovna Rada will support this decision and repeal the effect of this law as one that has fulfilled its role," Poroshenko said in opening a National Security and Defense Council meeting on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) had said earlier that it did not see a big problem in Poroshenko's remark on the possible repeal of the law on Donbas's special status.
"We don't see anything critical in the possibility that the law on Donbas's special status may be repealed, as it didn't work anyway. As concerns the so-called law on decentralization, it's been discussed for 15 years, but nothing has changed. Just as 78% of taxes collected in the region were going to Kyiv in the past, the same is happening now as well, and all these statements are just sheer populism," DPR First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Purhin told Interfax on Tuesday.
Even if the law on Donbas's special status is repealed, the self-proclaimed republic's leadership is not going to stop dialogue with Kyiv via mediators within the framework of a contact group in Minsk, he said.
"Sure, if a third party, like Russia or the OSCE, proposes this, we, as any normal people, will agree to take part in another round of consultations. After all, peace is much better than war. However, we can't initiate such meetings as a party to the conflict ourselves," Purhin said.
The DPR leadership rules out the possibility that Ukrainian laws and regulations passed without coordination with the DPR could be in effect on the self-proclaimed republic's territory, he said.
"Not a single Ukrainian act passed without coordination with the people's republic will work on our territory. We favor economic cooperation, but it can only be equitable, and we don't need any sops," Purhin said.
"Ukraine has always lived at Donbas's expense," he said.
Poroshenko on Monday initiated a National Security and Defense Council meeting on Tuesday to propose considering the repeal of the law on specifics of local self-government in some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ukrainian leader said the elections that the parts of Donbas not controlled by Kyiv held on Sunday grossly violated the Minsk protocol of September 5. At the same time, Poroshenko said decentralization remained a key element of the political settlement process in Donbas.
The Ukrainian law On Special Self-Government Procedures in Certain Districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions took effect on October 20. While the special self-government procedures in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are in effect, Ukrainian law in these areas is supposed to be applied taking into account the specifics stipulated by this legislation.