Law "on the special status" of Donbass should be extended to preserve anti-Russian sanctions - Poroshenko

The law on the peculiarities of local self-government in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts should be extended in order to preserve anti-Russian sanctions. This was said today during the annual message to the Verkhovna Rada by President Petro Poroshenko, - correspondent of OstroV reports.

"The Kremlin and its lap-dogs are once again trying to convince the European community that the Ukrainian party is not ready to extend the law (on the special status of Donbass, - OstroV). In the opinion of the Russian Federation, this represents Ukraine's inability to fulfill its obligations. In this regard, sanctions should be removed. Agree that it would be a criminal mistake to give Moscow a chance to accuse Ukraine of not implementing the agreements and achieve weakening of the sanctions list. I am dead sure that this is a Ukrainian scenario by no means", - he reported.

The President also noted that along with this, the progress should be demonstrated in coordinating the parameters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbass.

"The mission must be deployed throughout Ukraine with access to the Russian-Ukrainian border to create conditions for the implementation of part of the Minsk agreements, including withdrawal of Russian troops from the occupied territory. If this does not happen, the law on the peculiarities of local self-government will not work. This should be our logic", - Poroshenko explained.