The EU and the US are considering a new round of sanctions against Russia. According to foreign diplomatic sources speaking with the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the new round of sanctions may be implemented if the separatist-controlled regions of Ukraine fail to hold local elections at the same time as other Ukrainian regions.
Ukrainian elections are scheduled for October 25. Elections in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have been scheduled by the separatists for October 18, while the leadership of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic has planned elections for November 1.
The sources noted that sanctions “are not an end in themselves for the US or EU,” but if the Minsk deal is violated, they “won’t have any other choice.”
“If representatives of Lugansk and Donetsk continue to press this point and elections in the Donbass [eastern Ukraine] are held separately from the general Ukrainian election, do not follow Ukrainian law, and are inaccessible to international observers, this will be a serious and demonstrative blow to the Minsk agreements,” the source told Kommersant.
The government in Kiev has appealed to Donetsk and Lugansk on numerous occasions, asking for elections to be held there in accordance with Ukrainian law, at the same time as the country's general election. The self-proclaimed republics have claimed that Kiev violated the Minsk agreements by passing a new law on local elections without consulting Donetsk and Lugansk.
The topic of local elections in Donetsk and Lugansk will be addressed in September at a meeting of the Ukrainian, Russian, French, and German foreign ministers in Minsk. The topic is also expected to be addressed at a UN General Assembly meeting in New York in late September.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine between separatists and pro-government forces has been raging since April 2014. In February 2015, a peace deal was drawn up in Minsk by Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany.
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