Foreign Ministry: Autonomies won’t be elected in Donbas, Ukraine is unitary state

Political director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleksii Makeiev made a corresponding statement. The diplomat’s speech was posted on his Twitter page.

“This refers to local elections. Nobody will allow to elect any presidents, any autonomies there, because Ukraine is a unitary state. Therefore, there is a demand to the diplomats of the Russian Federation, which is also supported by our partners in the Normandy format, that the troops must be withdrawn and Ukraine must be enabled to restore its sovereignty over the currently occupied territory,” Makeiev said.

Про Формулу Штайнмаєра та місцеві вибори на Донбасі: формула є лише частиною загального врегулювання і не існує відокремлено від інших важливих елементів врегулювання російсько-українського міжнародного збройного конфлікту! pic.twitter.com/ukmkX5WTa6

— Oleksii Makeiev 🇺🇦 (@Makeiev) 9 октября 2019 г.

As he assured, the negotiations do not start from the "Steinmeier formula" as it provides for a solution only when the law on the peculiarities of local self-government in Donbas comes into force.

At the same time, Makeiev emphasized that the elections in the occupied parts of Donbas would be declared democratic only when OSCE observers confirm that “there are no criminals with machine guns at the polling stations, no tanks near the polling stations, that any citizen of Ukraine living in this territory can come and vote, including 1.5 million temporarily displaced persons. "

ol