The insurgents did not say when they now meant to hold their polls.
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In the words of Heraschenko, militants often set unacceptable demands for the release of hostages.
Mr Poroshenko’s comments to a group of military cadets in Kiev came one day after the separatists delayed, until next year, local elections they had planned for the coming weeks.
Moscow denies sending troops and heavy weapons to the separatists.
That was a cunning way to defuse a time bomb planted under the Minsk cease-fire deal reached last February.
Reports say Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has welcomed the decision on the vote postponement, saying it paves the way to hold local elections in Lugansk and Donetsk in accordance with the Ukrainian law and under global observation.
Moscow welcomed the decision by the self-proclaimed republics.
The republics expect that Kiev will be ready “to assign the Donbass a special status, prevent the prosecution and punishment of participants of the events on the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, and introduce amendments to the constitution, giving it a new version, one that takes us into consideration”. “The fighters carried out an attack with an anti-tank missile”, the Ukrainian military said in a Facebook post.
“The fact that 70% of Ukrainian army regulars fighting against separatists and Russian soldiers have Russian as their mother-tongue shows the unity of our people and our army”, Shevchuk said.
The separatists instead said the elections would go ahead in February next year, potentially giving time for global mediators to hammer out a compromise agreement under which Kiev can accept the vote.
Both pullbacks conformed to a new deal signed by the warring sides on September 1.
Tkachuk said the withdrawal seemed to be arranged by using reproduction of a given Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and is done during the next 14 days.
Ukraine’s president and Russian lawmakers hailed the move as a step toward peace in a war that has killed more than 8,000 people since April 2014.
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It has also further eroded Putin’s relations with Washington and Brussels, an isolation that threatens to worsen with Russia’s air campaign in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
