You're reading: Poroshenko says special status for Donbas won’t ruin Ukraine’s integrity

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that special status for individual districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts is the key element of his peace plan for Donbas which he proposed as a presidential candidate, the presidential press service reported.

 Poroshenko told the leaders of parliamentary factions and groups on Monday that these issues are “de-facto elements of decentralization with complete and unconditional observance of the state’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence, and with the guaranteed maintenance of all of the basic attributes, including the foreign, security and legal policy.”

The president also said that the special status has a clearly defined time limit – three years. “This time will suffice to implement deep decentralization which must be put through a process of corresponding constitutional amendments,” Poroshenko said.