Lavrov Calls on Kiev to Grant Special Status to Donbass

Sergei Lavrov urged Kiev to grant special status to Donbass and said Russia proposed a ministerial Normandy Format meeting in 10-12 days.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Kiev must grant Ukraine's conflict-torn eastern Donbass region special status in its proposed constitutional amendments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

"Instead of blurry promises, Kiev authorities need to include detailed provisions on self-governance, on special status for these regions in Donbass," Lavrov told students and faculty of Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

The Ukrainian parliament is debating changes to the country's Constitution, which were stipulated in the deal reached between Kiev and the Donbass republics in February. Under the Minsk ceasefire deal, legislators were to pass dozens of laws to decentralize power in Ukraine, including greater autonomy and a "special status" for Donetsk and Lugansk.

On Monday, the parliament approved, at the first reading, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's proposed constitutional amendments on the decentralization of power in the country, prompting violent clashes outside the parliament between riot police and members of nationalist political parties. One police officer died of wounds he sustained when a protestor, thought to be from the Svoboda party, detonated a grenade. Another policeman died from wounds in the hospital on Tuesday. Over a hundred of people were injured.

On Monday, to quell the dissent, Poroshenko underlined that the draft law on constitutional reforms in Ukraine does not stipulate a special status for the crisis-hit eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass.

Russia Proposes Ministerial Normandy Format Meeting on Ukraine in 10-12 Days

Russia has proposed that a meeting of foreign ministers from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France, or the so-called Normandy Quartet, be held in the next 10-12 days, Lavrov added.

The Normandy Quartet — comprising Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine — has been working to secure a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which started in April 2014.

"Following our president's phone talk with President Poroshenko, President Hollande and Chancellor Merkel, we proposed holding a meeting of foreign ministers in the next 10-12 days, in order to pinpoint the negotiability problem of all parties to the Minsk agreements, and find ways to overcome the obstacles that have arisen," Lavrov said.

The top Russian diplomat added that Hollande and Merkel supported Moscow’s proposal.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a Normandy Quartet meeting at the level of the countries' leaders is possible, but did not specify any dates.

The group of negotiators has held several rounds of talks on Ukrainian reconciliation. In February, the group worked out a peace deal in Minsk, Belarus. The agreement included a set of steps to end the military conflict in Ukraine, including a ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner swaps and constitutional reforms.

Both sides to the Ukraine conflict have repeatedly accused each other of violating the Minsk agreements.