Moscow expects response from Europe over Ukraine's Donbass status laws

© RIA Novosti / Anton Denisov

Moscow expects its European partners from the 'Normandy Four' to give their appraisals of the freshly-approved Ukrainian laws on self-rule in the southeastern regions.

"We have not yet heard any judgments on the part of our colleagues and partners. We still hope that such judgments will appear," Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

He added that if the Minsk peace accords are undermined as a result of Kiev actions the situation would demand urgent involvement of all guarantors of the ceasefire.

"We support any dialogue," Peskov stated. However, he said that at the moment the Normandy Four had not yet agreed on a new meeting.

He also said that if the presence of US and British military advisers in Ukraine, if true, did not contribute to the security in this country.

On March 17, the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed the law on special status for the Donbass regions, granting the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk special self-rule status, but postponing its introduction until the regions hold new elections under Ukrainian laws.

MPs also approved a special statement that recognized the two republics as 'temporary occupied territories' and voted that the status should remain until the Ukrainian military fully restores control.

The leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics called these decisions "shameful" and said that by passing the documents that were not agreed with them Kiev demonstrated that it was completely incapable of responsible negotiations.

On March 18, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the Kiev steps "a glaring breach of the Minsk ceasefire agreements" and said that he had urged foreign ministers of Germany and France to take a trilateral joint demarche in regards to Ukraine in order to force it to return to the dialogue with the Donbass republics.

Earlier, Lavrov has said that Russia was ready to discuss the deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, but only on condition that it is agreed both with Kiev and self-proclaimed republics in Donbass.

"To be honest, we see no arguments against looking into any suggestions. But for this we must talk to the sides of the conflict," he said.