"The de-occupation law will strengthen our position in the struggle for the release of hostages and in the issue of the possible deployment of UN peacekeepers to Donbas," he wrote on Facebook on Sunday, October 8.
Read alsoUkraine hands hostage lists to Russia in Minsk – SBU"Russia, as an aggressor country, will not have any right to participate in this mission, which must be deployed throughout the occupied areas, including the temporarily uncontrolled section of the Russian-Ukrainian border," the president said.
As UNIAN reported, bill No. 7163 on the specifics of the state policy regarding the state sovereignty of Ukraine over the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions passed its first reading on October 6. Some 233 members of the Verkhovna Rada voted for the bill, which was tabled by President Poroshenko.
The draft law determines that the Russian Federation's temporary occupation of territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions is an illegitimate act and does not create any territorial rights for the Russian Federation. Activities of the Russian armed forces and other military formations and the occupying administration of the Russian Federation, which is contrary to the norms of international humanitarian law, are recognized as illegal, and any act issued in connection with such activity shall be invalid and shall not create legal consequences, the bill says.
Presidential envoy to parliament Iryna Lutsenko said that the bill would facilitate the allocation of defensive weapons and deployment of a peacekeeping mission to eastern Ukraine.
