‘In order to hold any sort of elections on the occupied territories, we’re going to need presence of 10, maybe 12 thousand policemen of the OSCE mission’, Shkiryak said.
Speaking about opportunities to hold local elections in Donbas, the counselor stressed there will be none – in the next couple of years. ‘No ‘special status for Donbas’ and no respective changes in the Ukrainian constitution will be submitted in the near future’, he said.
Pro-Russian militants of DPR and LPR demand that Ukrainian parliament submit changes to the Constitution allowing them to hold local elections. That would mean recognizing the right of the occupied territories for separate governance under the rule of Kremlin-backed mercenaries.
President Poroshenko previously stressed that no election will be held in Donbas until Russian troops and weaponry are withdrawn from the region, and Ukraine’s border guards regain control over the country’s state border with Russia.