Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in connection with the pseudo-elections in Donbas has offered to draft separate amendments to the Constitution on decentralization, while leaving in parliament constitutional amendments mentioning a special order of local self-government for the certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Speaking at the 7th meeting of the Regional Development Council in Kyiv, Poroshenko said one of the key elements of his work as president was the reform of decentralization.
"Remember how everyone skeptically smiled, saying that everyone promised, but no one would ever give money from the center, but this was my and the government's principled position. By the way, we have prepared amendments to the Constitution, which should provide constitutional support for changes to decentralization," he said, an UNIAN correspondent reports.
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"Today I can say that due to the fact that the illegal 'elections' took place in the occupied territories yesterday, due to the fact that Russia took full responsibility for the gross violation of the Minsk agreements – we're leaving those changes to the Constitution in parliament, but maybe we will quickly draft amendments to the Constitution, which will allow us to continue to advance in defense of decentralization, providing a constitutional base to them. We don't have time to do this from January 1, 2019, since it requires two sessions. We will do this from January 1, 2020, or 2021, but our pace must not allow anyone stopping us," Poroshenko said.
As UNIAN reported, the Russian-puppet “DPR and “LPR” on November 11 held sham "elections" of the so-called "heads of people's republics" and "deputies of people's councils."
The international community has condemned the pseudo-elections.
The European Union, the United States, and Japan declared that the holding of "elections" in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine was a violation of the Minsk agreements.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that the fake "elections" in Donbas would not be recognized either by Ukraine or by the international community.
