European Parliament (EP) President Martin Schulz and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stress the elections the pro-Russian separatists are planning to hold in separate districts in Donetsk and Luhanks Oblasts on Nov. 2 are unacceptable and contravene Ukrainian laws and the Minsk agreements, the Ukrainian presidential press service said.
When speaking over the phone with the Ukrainian president on Wednesday, Schulz said that the snap parliamentary election held in Ukraine on Oct. 26, 2014, is highly democratic and transparent, which is proven by the conclusions of EP observers and other missions.
Poroshenko thanked Schulz for support and stressed that a new, pro-European parliamentary majority in Ukraine would back up the process of Ukraine’s integration into Europe.
Poroshenko also invited Schulz to visit Ukraine in the near future.
As was reported, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada at its closed meeting on Sept. 16, 2014, passed a presidential law on special self-government procedures in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three years and on snap local elections in these districts on Dec. 7, 2014.
At the same time, the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts announced their plans to hold own local elections of leaders and legislatures on Nov. 2, 2014.
Poroshenko said the Nov. 2 elections threatened the peace process in Donbas.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov earlier announced that Moscow would recognize the results of the Nov. 2 elections in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. “We see it as a top priority of the Minsk agreements. We expect the elections to take place as planned, and we will certainly recognize their results,” Lavrov said.
