An official from the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DNR) in eastern Ukraine is demanding that Kyiv explain why it missed a deadline to grant the DNR and another pro-Russian separatist region special status.
Under the terms of a truce agreement reached on February 12 between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France, Ukraine's parliament was supposed to officially recognize a special status for the separatist-controlled DNR and the "Luhansk People's Republic" (LNR).
The deal called for the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to grant the special status, which gives greater autonomy to the DNR and LNR, within one month.
There have been no reports from Kyiv indicating the Verkhovna Rada approved the measure.
Denis Pushilin, the DNR's representative to the Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, said on March 14 that there was no point in further meetings to discuss normalizing the situation in the east of the country until the Verkhovna Rada approved the special status deal.
