Ukraine rebels to delay local elections
‘There has not been a single shot fired.
But he added: “This is still not peace. The end of the war will come when the last part of Ukrainian land is liberated from the enemy, the occupant, the invader”, said Poroshenko. “It is a real truce,” he said in a speech to a military academy in Kyiv. “This long-range counterbattery stations that allow us to improve the defense capabilities of the Ukrainian army”, – said Ukrainian prezident.
Ukraine will still conduct its own local elections in Kyiv-controlled territories on October 25. Russian Federation has continued to deny any direct military involvement in the conflict.
Poroshenko had called the planned elections “fake” and branded them another example of the rebels’ refusal to commit to a truce agreed in February.
While a ceasefire has largely held in the region for a month, both sides have balked at political concessions aimed at reintegrating rebel-held areas into the rest of the country, with increased local powers.
“Ukraine desperately needs support from overseas, so it doesn’t become a so-called failed state – this risk is unfortunately very great”, U.S. Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, who was nuncio in Kyiv from November 2011 until early September, told Vatican Radio October. 2. In 80 days’ time, after the passage of the law, the election should be held.
According to reports, Pope Francis has accepted an invitation from President Poroshenko to travel to Ukraine, but as yet no date has been set. First, Ukraine must design the special election law in consultation with Moscow and the separatists.
Since April 2014, eastern Ukraine has witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Kyiv government forces backed by the West. In March that year, Ukraine’s eastern peninsula of Crimea voted in a referendum rejoin the Russian Federation, triggering the conflict. The two men are the rebel envoys to the Minsk Group peace talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Russia-Backed Rebels in Ukraine to Delay Disputed Elections