Attempt to hold illegal elections in Donbas will disrupt Minsk agreements – Yatseniuk
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has warned that any plan to hold elections in areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions temporarily uncontrolled by the Ukrainian government would lead to the disruption of the Minsk agreements.
"Any attempts by the Russian Federation (because Russian mercenaries operate in Donetsk and Luhansk) to hold any illegal elections in these territories would mean the full and total disruption of the Minsk agreements," Yatseniuk said following a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz in Warsaw on Wednesday.
Elections in Ukraine, on the whole and "in Ukrainian territory, which includes Donetsk, Luhansk, and Crimea," must be held only in keeping with international standards and OSCE criteria of transparent and fair elections, he said.
"We have addressed the OSCE and the ODIHR to answer whether there are conditions today for holding fair and transparent elections there. How to go to the polling station and to drop ballot paper at Russian gunpoint? This is fabrication," he said.
Ukraine has fulfilled its part of the Minsk agreements, Yatseniuk said.
"Any discussions on heaping responsibility on Ukraine are groundless and unacceptable. Ukraine is a victim," he said.
Yatseniuk pointed out the key provisions of the Minsk agreements, including Clause 1 on a ceasefire. "This hasn't happened. Yes, it happens sometimes that the number of attacks significantly declines, but then it is back there again," he said.
Yatseniuk said that Russia is interested in the destabilization of the situation in the world in general. "The consequences of destabilization are known not only to Ukraine but now also to Europe. We understand you better than anyone else, considering that hundreds of thousands of immigrants from military conflict zones are looking for asylum in European Union member-states," he said.
Yatseniuk then praised Poland's position "in supporting Ukraine regarding the unity of the European Union and the United States of America as regards sanctions against the Russian Federation."