Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to develop a bill that would grant special status to the two breakaway republics in the country’s south-eastern Donbass region, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference on Monday.
Speaking in Kiev after a meeting with Zelensky, Scholz revealed that the Ukrainian leader would consider drawing up a bill that would lead to the two self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR) being given more autonomy. The two regions declared independence from Kiev eight years ago, after the events of the Maidan, when violent street protests toppled the democratically elected government in Ukraine. Neither Moscow nor Kiev has recognized them as independent countries.
“The President assured me that Ukraine would present draft laws on special status and on elections [in the region],” Scholz said.
Scholz was in Kiev for a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, during which he stressed to Zelensky that Germany “stood close by [Ukraine’s] side” amid the current rising tensions in Eastern Europe.