© AP Photo/Virginia Mayo
The Ukrainian president played down concern, expressed by someone in Ukraine over a bill on a special status of a number of territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, saying "it poses no threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity"; the power will be turned over from the center to regions on approximately the same scale as it was done to local bodies of power in Poland, he explained.
Local governments will be entitled to settle language problems and control expenditures of local budgets, but the principle problems of foreign and home politics will remain in the competence of the central authorities, Poroshenko said.
It is important to hold early local election in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to have officials to represent the population of these territories, the Ukrainian president said.
He expressed hope that the Ukrainian parliament would approve the bill. Commenting on the expected bill on amnesty, the Ukrainian president said it would apply to people who committed no violent crimes.
Comment: So what, is Poroshenko planning on charging every member of the NAF, whose actions would no doubt be considered violent crimes by Kiev? As if that will go over well.
Comment: It looks like neither Kiev nor Russia want a fully independent Novorossiya. Russia would prefer a neutral, stable, unified Ukraine. While it may not mesh with the wishes of Novorossiya for full independence, could this be the first step towards the eventual de-nazification of Kiev?