KIEV
Pro-Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in eastern Ukraine have refused to recognize a law signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko which grants special status to local authorities, official separatist sources have said.
The Chairman of the Supreme Council of the self-claimed Luhansk People's Republic, Alexey Karyakin, announced in a written statement on Saturday that the republic would not enact the law as it was "adopted in Ukraine and did not relate to LPR".
"We have our own state and laws," Karyakin said.
The Prime Minister of the self-claimed Donetsk Republic, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, also said Donetsk did not recognize the law, adding it was a domestic issue for Ukraine and unrelated to the Donets Basin.
Zakharchenko said: "Ukraine can adopt any kind of rules, but they do not bind us. We are an independent republic, elected by people's votes in a referendum on May 11.
"Those in Kiev believe they are ruling us, but they do not anymore."
Poroshenko signed the law granting local authorities in the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics the right to rule themselves for three years, on October 16.
The law also allowed local elections to be held in the regions on December 9 and declared citizens who were involved in fighting in the east would not be punished.
However, the pro-Russian and self-claimed republics plan to run parliament and presidential elections on November 2 in the regions under their control.
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