Ukraine rebels make new threat to abandon cease-fire – VIDEO: Russia won't give Crimea back to Ukraine
FILE - In this Thursday March 12, 2015 file photo, a pro-Russian rebel rests at the frontline in a village not far from Luhasnk, eastern Ukraine. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov, File)
KIEV, Ukraine Separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine threatened Wednesday to abandon a cease-fire following changes to a law granting their regions self-rule.
Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky said in a statement that legislation giving areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions special status has been weakened by the amendments.
"We agreed to a special status for the Donbass within a renewed Ukraine, although our people wanted total independence. We agreed to this to avoid the spilling of fraternal blood," the statement said.
But Ukraine did not renew itself," it continued. Rebels have pushed for revisions to the constitution to decentralize power, but argue that authority is still held by powerful businessmen.
A law on granting autonomy to eastern territories was approved by parliament Tuesday, but with a number of changes that have drawn sharp criticism from Moscow-backed rebels and Russia alike.
Foremost among the rebels' objections is a requirement for elections -- to be held under Ukrainian laws -- to take place before the special status can come into effect.
A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman said in an emailed statement that enacting the special status law without elections approved by Kiev would result in the legitimization of what Ukraine considers unlawful rebel governments.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine's parliament had undertaken a wholesale rewriting of the agreement.
"What comes out of parliament's decree is that only when these territories are led by somebody suitable for Kiev will the law on special status come into effect," he said. "That is an attempt to turn everything that was agreed upon on its head."
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Ukraine rebels make new threat to abandon cease-fire - VIDEO: Russia won't give Crimea back to Ukraine