Ukraine’s parliament has voted to extend a law granting special status to the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts currently controlled by Russian-backed separatists. The law will now remain in place until the end of 2020.
The legislation, which aims to eventually grant the occupied territories self-governance, was first adopted in September 2014 as part of the Minsk Protocol, a pact between Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France aimed at ending the war in Donbas.
So far, it has never come into force. The bill only guarantees self-governance for the occupied parts of Donbas after free and fair local elections are held under Ukrainian law. These elections must be monitored by the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other international election observation groups. The pullback of all weapons and armed groups is another condition for self-governance.
The law’s extension is intended to lay the foundation for the full implementation of the Steinmeier Formula, a peace plan first articulated by German ex-Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2015.
President Zelensky agreed to the plan in October but has repeatedly said no elections will be held until all armed forces leave the occupied territories.
At a summit in Paris on Dec. 9, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France agreed that self-governing status should be granted permanently and that the Steinmeier Formula should be incorporated into Ukrainian legislation.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the summit, Zelensky said it was optimal to prolong the law on self-governance for an additional year to see if Russia and its proxy forces in eastern Ukraine will meet the plan’s conditions.
Read more: What Ukraine achieved in Paris
The four leaders also agreed to a ceasefire and an all-for-all prisoner exchange by the end of 2019 and committed to outlining a strategy for demining the front-line zone and removing troops and weaponry from three additional locations.
For now, Russia has failed to meet the conditions laid out by the agreements. On the day of the summit itself, the Ukrainian military reported that Russian-led forces violated the ceasefire seven times.
