You're reading: Donetsk, Luhansk republics offer Kyiv to appoint regional prosecutors, judges nominated by them

MOSCOW - The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) says that the appointment of regional judges and prosecutors is a matter of principle for the self-proclaimed republics.

‘Look, there are a number of really principled things. These, of course, are courts and prosecutors and the people’s police as well. And there is a host of other aspects that are of principle to us and which are elements of security for us because we are perfectly aware that if we let the Kyiv government in here, we will simply be destroyed physically,’ the DPR negotiator at Contact Group talks, Denys Pushilin, said in an interview with the host of the News on Saturday program, Sergei Brilyov.

One of these days, the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and DPR offered a new set of proposed changes to the Ukrainian Constitution, which include, among other things, the appointment of judges and prosecutors.

‘Kyiv will appoint but we will agree on candidacies. We will nominate candidates. It cannot be otherwise. These should be local people, people who must understand the situation around here. And, naturally, they should be, let’s put it this way, unbiased individuals,’ Pushilin said.

As for the phrasing used in the LPR and DPR proposals that the Donbas areas with a special status are part of Ukraine, Pushilin said that ‘this is a conversation of a future that is under a very big question, given that Kyiv has not fulfilled yet a single point of the Set of Measures.’

‘Moreover, it will probably be a while before Kyiv refers to us as the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. But for us, residents of our territories, it has long been clear and we have long decided that we are the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics,’ he stressed.