President Petro Poroshenko on Nov. 4 called on the National Security and Defense Council and the Verkhovna Rada to repeal a law granting special status to separatist-controlled regions of Ukraine, according to Interfax Ukraine.
“Other parties to the Minsk agreements, except for Ukraine and the OSCE, have not fulfilled their obligations,” he said in an obvious reference to Russia as the violator of the Sept. 5 peace deal.
Poroshenko also ordered additional troops be sent to Mariupol, Berdyansk and Kharkiv as well as northern Luhansk and Dnepropetrovsk oblast in case of a new offensive by Kremlin-backed separatists. Ukrainian government and other sources are reporting a buildup of separatist troops and Russian equipment in the east.
The announcement comes on the heels of a controversial election organized by Russia-supported secessionist leaders on Nov. 2 and supported by far-right European politicians. United States and European Union leaders have criticized the vote for violating Ukrainian law and the Minsk peace agreement and refused to recognize it.
“Both Russia and its separatist proxies had agreed to honor Ukraine’s special status electoral law when they signed the Minsk Protocol of Sept. 5. They, therefore, violated the terms of that protocol with these so-called “elections” on Nov. 2,” said National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan in a statement on Nov. 4.
Russia, meanwhile, has bucked international pressure and recognized the elections.
“We respect the expression of the will of the residents of the southeast. The elected representatives have received a mandate to solve effectively any problem to restore regular life in the regions,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Nov. 3. The ministry also said that the election was “generally well-organized” and had a “high turnout.”
Under the Minsk protocol, local elections were to be held in both Ukrainian and separatists controlled eastern Ukraine in early December in an attempt to integrate the de facto local authorities with Ukrainian law.
Separatists instead moved up their election to early November and turned them in a vote for the heads of their self-proclaimed states and national assemblies, widely seen as a precursor to independence from Ukraine or possible annexation by Russia as in Crimea.
“We are ready to give wide authority assumed by law only to legitimate local authorities but not to the criminals that crowned themselves,” Porohsenko said on Nov. 3.
At the meeting of the NSDC on Nov. 4, Poroshenko emphasized that repealing the law did not mean canceling the Minks agreement and stated Ukraine is willing to adopt a new law once there is a cease-fire and troops are withdrawn “from the line of contact.”
