DPR submits to Contact Group draft amendments to Ukrainian Constitution
MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) submits to the Contact Group for consideration draft amendments to Ukrainian Constitution, DPR’s envoy at the negotiations Denis Pushilin said on Wednesday.
“DPR proposes to the Contact Group to consider compromise draft amendments to Ukrainian Constitution prepared by our lawyers,” Donetsk News Agency quoted Pushilin as saying. “it provides real guarantees for special status of Donbas, political rights of our people,” he added.
Pushilin added that Kyiv’s proposals on amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution are a “legal fake.” “DPR officially states that Article 18 of amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution, submitted by Kyiv to the [Verkhovna] Rada for voting, has not been coordinated with the republic [DPR]. This is the flagrant violation of the Minsk Agreements,” he explained adding that “this is a legal fake fabricated to deceive the people of Donbas and international community.”
DPR once again “calls on Russia and Western countries to exert pressure on Kyiv and make it implement the Minsk Agreements,” he noted.
Constitutional reform is envisaged by the Minsk accords signed on 12 February 2015, after negotiations in the so-called “Normandy format” in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The constitutional reform will guarantee Donbass a special status. However, the amendments put forward by Kyiv were not coordinated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics. On August 31 the Verkhovna Rada approved the amendments in the first reading but DPR and LPR said that the draft document did not undergo the coordination stage. DPR authorities repeatedly noted that Kyiv violates the Minsk Agreements by loosely interpreting them without coordination with Donbas and “imitates fulfilling its commitments.”
The Minsk also accords envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbas and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.