Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday adopted two bills enshrining greater autonomy for areas controlled by pro-Russian rebels, in line with a peace deal that continues to be marred by deadly skirmishes.
More than 260 lawmakers in the 450-seat Rada voted in favor of both bills introduced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, which had drawn fire both from the rebels and nationalists in Kiev.
“This law will give power to people whose hands are covered with the blood of Ukrainians,” former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, now a lawmaker, said during a heated debate in parliament.
Photo: AFP
The vote came amid fresh reports of casualties despite a truce in the fighting between government forces and the separatists, who seized control of parts of the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions last year after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
Three soldiers were killed and five injured in the past 24 hours, an army spokesman said on Tuesday.
Some of the casualties were caused by fire from the rebels, the others when a military vehicle drove over a landmine, spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters, refusing to give a more precise account of the incidents.
The government complains daily of continuing grenade, mortar and small arms fire from the rebels against its positions.
The rebels also accuse the government of ceasefire violations.
Despite the continuing clashes in a handful of flashpoints, the Feb. 12 truce has largely held.
With the violence, which has killed more than 6,000 people, now subsiding, the focus has shifted to the political elements of the peace deal, which require Kiev to surrender a degree of control over rebel-held areas.
The bills adopted by parliament build on a first set of laws dating from September last year that gave “special status” to parts of Donetsk and Lugansk.
The areas to be given a form of self-rule — including greater status for the Russian language — were listed for the first time in the texts adopted on Tuesday, which also set out conditions for the changes to take effect.
Kiev says the separatists must first hold local elections under Ukrainian law, with international monitoring.
“Ukraine’s position is that we will deal with representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk, who will be elected legitimately and in accordance with Ukrainian law ... in polls that will be recognized by the entire civilized world,” Poroshenko said. “There will not be any other elections in Ukraine.”
The rebels had earlier rejected the conditions.
Reacting to the bills, Denis Pushilin, a senior rebel representative, said they were “a complete violation of the Minsk agreements.”
He said the rebels would outline their position in full shortly.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in