Kiev Says Has No Principal Objections To 'Steinmeier Formula' On Elections In Donbas

Kiev Says Has No Principal Objections to 'Steinmeier Formula' on Elections in Donbas

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2019) Kiev has no principal objections to the "Steinmeier formula" concerning the elections in the Ukrainian breakaway region of Donbas, Daria Olifer, spokeswoman for Kiev's envoy to the Contact Group on Donbas, Leonid Kuchma, said Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Russia's envoy to the Contact Group, Boris Gryzlov, said that Kiev endangered the holding of a new Normandy Four (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) summit, refusing to sign the "Steinmeier formula".

"The Ukrainian side has no objections in principle to the so-called Steinmeier formula concerning local elections," Olifer said on Facebook.

The spokeswoman noted that the implementation of the formula was possible if only a range of conditions were fulfilled.

The document, proposed by then German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2016, is a peace plan for the conflict-hit eastern Ukraine. It stipulates that the parties involved should hold free and fair local elections in Donbas under Ukrainian law. In exchange, the region should receive a special self-governance status.