President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law extending the law on the special status of Donbass until December 31, 2021. The corresponding document was posted on the website of the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, December 24.
“Returned with a signature from the president,” the parliament’s website says.
On December 15, the Verkhovna Rada extended this law. The document comes into force on the day of its publication in the official press.
The leader of the Ukrainian opposition Batkivshchyna party, Yulia Tymoshenko, believes that the law “turns Donbass into a springboard for the seizure of Ukraine politically.” According to her, the project does not spell out what “people on both sides of the front line expect.” In addition, it allegedly creates a state within a state.
The Ukrainian parliament adopted the law on the special status of Donbass in 2014, but never put it into effect. The document envisaged the introduction of a special order of local self-government for a period of 3 years for certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In the fall of 2018, Rada extended it until the end of 2019. After the meeting in Paris of the “Norman Four” (Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine) in December 2019, it was extended until December 31, 2020.
Ukraine began a military operation in 2014 due to the refusal of the residents of Donbass to recognize the results of the coup in the country.