Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the 'Normandy format' is currently not addressing the bill on elections in the eastern part of the country.

"How can we discuss the bill now? What we are now discussing, in actual fact, is what it means to hold fair and free elections, what it means to comply with OSCE criteria," the minister said in an interview with Interfax.

This process is characterized by a huge number of internally displaced persons and issues relating to the determined division line, he said. "For example, what about Debaltseve? The elections are not supposed to be held there, but what will happen there? There are also a number of issues that, no doubt, have to be discussed. But we are now discussing approaches, ideas," Klimkin said.

The Minsk logic is that the first thing to do is to achieve secure conditions on the basis of effective control from the international community, he said.

"In any case, fair and free elections are only possible on condition of a stable security space. It is perfectly obvious that the adoption of the law is only possible after cardinal progress in the sphere of security, including monitoring of the Ukrainian-Russian border by the OSCE as an indispensable condition. And the election date could be determined solely on the basis of full confidence supported by the conclusions made by the OSCE ODIHR bureau mission, as regards the presence of stable security and all conditions of the elections' compliance with OSCE criteria. That's how I see the issue of consistency and guarantees. Otherwise it will be an attempt to preserve what exists now," he said.