U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland denied reports that she set a July deadline for holding the elections in the Russian-occupied Donbas.
Nuland arrived in Ukraine on April 25 and met with several Ukrainian leaders.
After her meeting with leaders of parliamentary factions on April 26, a Samopomich Party representative at the meeting, Victoria Voytsitska, said through the party’s press service that Nuland said that the U.S. government expects elections in separatist areas to take place in July.
Otherwise, according to the lawmaker, the assistant secretary said the U.S. may not renew economic sanctions against Russia this summer.
The report made waves in Ukrainian media, with much criticism about such an ultimatum and even how elections can take place amid constant cease-fire violations in the Russian-backed war that started in 2014.
But Nuland denied the July deadline report, calling it “completely inaccurate,” telling journalists during an April 27 press conference that “we’ve put no date on when elections need to happen.”
But according to Voytsitska, that is not entirely true.
While the lawmaker told the Kyiv Post that the Ukrainian media were wrong to report a July deadline, she confirmed that a time frame for the elections was discussed in the meeting.
The U.S. representatives present at the meeting said they want the elections in Donbas to take place before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office on Jan. 20, according to Voytsitska.
This means an October deadline, the lawmaker said.
At the same time, Voytsitska said, Nuland made it clear in the meeting that, by July, the Ukrainian government needs to take steps that would guarantee the elections in Donbas to create conditions this summer for sanctions against Russia could be extended.
These conditions include new laws to amend the Constitution of Ukraine to grant special status to the occupied territories, something most in Ukraine view as capitulation in the Russian war that has killed more than 9,000 people, many of them civilians. Nuland also denied the allegation that the U.S. financial aid to Ukraine will depend on whether the Donbas elections take place.
“Our financial and technical assistance to Ukraine is tied to Ukraine staying on the reform path,” not to the implementation of the Minsk peace agreements, Nuland said in Kyiv.
