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Rebels want to remain part of Ukraine, but with special status Printer friendly page Print This
By Staff Writers, Russia Today
RT.com
Monday, Sep 1, 2014

At talks in the Belarusian capital, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics have urged Kiev to acknowledge their autonomy within Ukraine, but said they wish to remain an integral part of the country.

LNR and DNR representatives urged the Ukrainian government to end their military operation in the country’s east so that parliamentary and local elections can take place freely.

“The president, government and [parliament] Verkhovna Rada should accept… decrees granting immediate recovery from the humanitarian catastrophe, acknowledging the special status of the territories under the control of the People’s Republics, creating conditions - first of all stopping the ‘anti-terror’ operations - for free elections of local authorities and MPs,” the document with the republics' position reads.

The document also calls on Kiev to guarantee “the right to use the Russian language at an official level on the territories of the People’s Republics.”

After the government of President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in March, the new authorities immediately started to introduce the legislation curbing the Russian language. Though the law failed to materialize in the end, the initiative was one of the major factors that triggered the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The statements come as a contact group on the crisis in eastern Ukraine begins its work in Minsk.

The self-proclaimed republics are represented by DNR Deputy PM Andrey Purgin and the chairman of the LNR’s Supreme Council, Aleksey Karyakin.

Before the meeting commenced, Purgin said he had brought to Minsk proposals aimed at curbing the military activity and reducing the number of the victims.

“I’ve come with the suggestions to find common ground to curb war and casualties,” he said, adding that those are “the initial suggestions for negotiations’ process.”

The propositions consist of “eight or nine points,” Purgin said and also include a suggestion to create a commission that would look into peaceful resolution of the conflict and the reconstruction of the Donetsk Region.

He also admitted that he doesn’t expect a breakthrough from the meeting of the so-called contact group aimed at solving the Ukrainian conflict.

Representatives of Russia, OSCE and Kiev are also part of the talks.

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