Referendum cannot be held in occupied Donbas - Volker

18:27, 24.07.2018 1 min read

A referendum cannot be held in the temporarily occupied area of Donbas, and the U.S. administration has already confirmed that, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker has said.

"The White House issued a statement on Friday that rejects the version of holding a referendum in eastern Ukraine," he said in an interview with the 112 Ukraine television channel on Tuesday.

Volker stressed that without Ukraine's control over temporarily occupied territories people live in a dangerous situation, there is no freedom of movement, many people left the area so there can be no referendum there, and it cannot be legitimate.

Earlier, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert confirmed that the U.S. administration was not considering supporting a possible referendum on independence in eastern Ukraine.

"The Administration is not considering supporting a referendum in E Ukraine - A 'referendum' would have no legitimacy. We continue to support Minsk agreements for solving the conflict in Donbas," Nauert wrote on Twitter.