The European Union and Russia welcomed a decision by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to postpone local elections, which they had vowed to conduct in defiance of Kiev's prowestern government.
The move by the rebel rulers of parts of Ukraine’s industrial Donetsk and Luhansk regions comes during a sharp de-escalation of a conflict that has claimed more than 8,000 lives and displaced more than one million people since April 2014.
For the first time, a ceasefire is holding across disputed territory and moves are under way to withdraw tanks and smaller weapons from the frontline following the removal of heavy artillery systems.
The sudden progress in Ukraine's troubled peace process coincided with the launch of Russian military action in Syria and a continuing decline in the Russian economy.
Rebel envoys said that after a meeting last week between Ukrainian, Russian, German and French leaders, and talks yesterday with Russia representatives and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), they had agreed to postpone local elections set for this month and next until February 2016.
"This opens the way for Ukraine to return to Donbas, with the help of elections according to Ukrainian law, on the basis of OSCE standards and, of course, without occupying forces," Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko said.
Donetsk and Luhansk are known collectively as Donbas, and Ukraine says the rebel militia there is armed and controlled by the Russian military. Despite the presence of high-tech Russian weapons in the region, and the capture and death of its soldiers in fighting there, Moscow denies involvement in the conflict.
“We welcome this decision,” said a Kremlin spokesman. “It is another example of the [separatists’] flexible and constructive approach in the interests of implementing the Minsk agreements,” he said, referring to the troubled peace deal first agreed last year in the Belarusian capital.
Minsk agreements
“Due implementation will represent a fundamental step towards full implementation of the Minsk agreements,” the EU’s foreign affairs arm said of the separatists’ postponement of the planned ballots. “This announcement offers renewed hope for a sustainable political settlement of the conflict, based on full respect of international law and Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
French president François Hollande said the move would “allow the continuation of the implementation of the Minsk accord, which is the only solution to a peaceful resolution”.
However, regional analysts say the conciliatory move from the separatists is merely part of a tactical pause on Russia’s part.
