Advisor Lutsenko: Only Donbas areas beyond Kyiv control to get special status
A third of the Donbas territory will receive a special status but it will remain a part of the united Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko Bloc leader, presidential advisor Yuriy Lutsenko said.
“The protocol has definitively stated that this is not about a special status of two regions. It has clearly said [the status will be granted] only to those districts of the two regions which are beyond control of the Ukrainian authorities,” Lutsenko said in the Svoboda Slova program aired by the ICTV channel on Monday night.
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“The positions held by the Ukrainian forces and [the positions] the Ukrainian forces cannot take as of yet are being demarcated,” he added.
A special status will be granted to certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which occupy about a third of the territory of Ukraine’s Donbas, Lutsenko said.
Thereby, “a special zone” will be created within the united Ukraine, the politician emphasized.
The presidential advisor noted that the special zone might be isolated and surrounded by engineering structures.
“The Minsk protocol means that Ukraine is united. Even the areas of Lugandon [the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics] which are temporarily beyond our control remain a part of Ukraine just the same. The border becomes ours and we have to isolate that special zone, take it under control, for instance, with the help of engineering structures, and offer them to compete not only in weapons but also in our lifestyles,” he said.