Power: Conditions in the Donbas do not meet those required to hold elections
During a UN Security Council meeting in New York, the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Samantha Power, stated that conditions in the Donbas are not sufficient to meet the standards of Ukrainian or international election laws.
Power emphasized the importance of conducting local elections in the Donbas in accordance with Ukrainian legislation and international standards.
“Citizens and observers who monitor the elections need sufficient security during the elections in order to be able to move and express their views freely and without fearing for their lives. But the conditions in eastern Ukraine do not in any way meet these standards,” Power emphasized.
She also drew attention to the restrictions placed on the OSCE observers and their limited access to the entirety of the Donbas region.
“If Russia and the separatists do not allow access for impartial SMM OSCE observers to Crimea and the area where flight MH17 crashed, then you have to ask, what are they hiding? Why are they so afraid of the SMM employees? Why do you not allow them to move freely? Why are you pointing your guns at them?” Power asked.
The meeting of the UN Security Council which took place on Thursday evening was to discuss, according to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, “the deterioration in the security situation in the Donbas and the non-fulfillment of the Minsk Agreements by Russia."