The decrees setting up six united territorial communities in the Donetsk region that envisaged the first local elections of lawmakers to local councils, as well as village and town heads, on November 29 are revoked.

It was reported on the official website of the Donetsk regional military and civil administration that head of the regional state administration Pavlo Zhebrivsky had signed the relevant decree on Thursday, August 20.

On August 14, Zhebrivsky signed decrees to set up six united territorial communities in the Donetsk region, namely Cherkaska (settlement), Andriyivska (village), Kramatorska (town), Ocheretynska (settlement), Oktiabrska (village), and Krasnolymanska (town). Under the decrees, the first local elections of deputies to the respective councils, as well as village and town heads of settlements in the respective communities, were set for November 29, 2015.

Zhebrivsky said later that he had not revoked local elections in the Donetsk region on October 25, because he had no powers to do so, though he called for the postponing of local elections in the region to a later date: "desirably before the end of the military operation and if not so before the creation of communities." "There is a law on the voluntary merger of territorial communities. According to this law, territorial communities have the right to unite, and elections in united territorial communities are announced at a session of the regional council. As the regional council does not function in the Donetsk region and I was vested with such powers as the head of the military and civil administration, I, without cancelling the date of October 25, announced elections in united communities, but not settlements," he said.