Ukraine rebels delay disputed poll
The insurgents did not say when they now intend to hold their polls. It’s a promising trend toward greater energy independence, experts say, but decades of energy politicking among Brussels, Kyiv, and Moscow isn’t going away overnight. However, Kyiv has cancelled the elections in eastern part of the country, citing security concerns.
A “real truce” has begun in Ukraine, president Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday, but a long-lasting peace with pro-Russian insurgents in its east would still take a few time.
“It opens the way for the return of Ukraine to the Donbas [east Ukraine] via elections conducted according to Ukrainian legislation, OSCE standards and of course without occupying forces,” he said in a statement on Facebook.
Vladimir Putin playing ice hockey this month.
“This permits the continued implementation of the Minsk accord, which is the only solution for a peaceful settlement to the situation in Ukraine“, Hollande said in the statement.
“(We) announce the consent of the Luhansk and Donetsk peoples’ republics to postpone elections from 18 October and 1 November to next year”, separatist envoys to the peace talks were quoted as saying by the DAN news agency, based in the main separatist-controlled city of Donetsk.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said the U.S. “welcomes” the election move.
Ukraine is expected to hold local elections on October 25 in the rest of the country.
But the rebels and Moscow argued that Ukraine would only regain its territorial integrity after Kyiv followed through on all the commitments it made in the February deal – something Ukraine has so far failed to do.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and the separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 8,000 people since mid-April 2014. The Kremlin denies giving military support to the rebels. A successful conclusion to the gas deal with Ukraine would be perceived as a step toward normalizing Russia’s business relationship with Europe, which has been tense during the aftermath of the Western sanctions levied against Russian Federation as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
Russian Federation has said it is using its influence over the rebels to push for peace in the region.