Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksandr Turchynov has said he is not sure that the adoption of presidential bills on Sept. 16 will stop Russian aggression and has said that every day of peace should be used to strengthen Ukraine's defenses.
“I am confident that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should have given the president a chance to implement his peace plan. That is why the Verkhovna Rada supported the bills introduced by the president. I am confident that even the adoption of these laws may not stop the aggressive intentions of the Russian Federation, but we should use every day of peace, when there is no active military confrontation, not for political battles, but for the strengthening of our armed forces and the restoration of our military potential,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Sept. 17.
It was reported that at its session, held behind closed doors on Sept. 17, the Verkhovna Rada passed a presidential bill introducing a special self-administration regime for specific districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions for a three-year period and calling early local elections in these regions on December 7, 2014.
The Verkhovna Rada also passed a bill guaranteeing no criminal prosecution for certain categories of persons who committed criminal offenses between Feb. 22, 2014, and the effective date of the law in those parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Obasts where the antiterrorist operation was taking place.
