Rada speaker signs resolution on temporarily occupied areas of Donbas

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the resolution on March 17.

The Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) Volodymyr Hroisman on Monday signed a parliamentary resolution recognizing some areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions as temporarily occupied, the Ukrainian parliament has reported on its website.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the resolution on March 17. The document takes effect on the day following its publication.

While the Verkhovna Rada was considering this document, Hroisman said that the resolution recognizes separate districts, cities, towns and villages of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, to which the law on special local self-government procedures applies, as temporarily occupied.

In accordance with the law on special local self-government procedures in some areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, a special procedure for local self-government is to be introduced in these areas until all illegal armed groups, their military hardware, and foreign mercenaries are removed and full Ukrainian government control over the state border is restored, he said.

Before voting, Hroisman had suggested that the amendments proposed by Oleh Liashko, the leader of the Radical Party, be made to the draft resolution. Hroisman did not speak on the exact wording of the amendments proposed by Liashko.

Liashko said that he had proposed that the amended wording should cover the withdrawal of "illegal armed units, Russian armed units, the surrender of weapons, and the blocking of the border."