Ukraine parliament extends insurgents' self-rule by one year

A raucous Ukrainian parliament today extended by another year the self-rule of its two Russian- backed insurgent regions of Lugansk and Donetsk under a set of strict conditions.
The vote has been welcomed by Ukraine's Western partners but bitterly opposed by hard-core nationalists who set off flares outside the chamber during the first debate held yesterday.
Deputies voted by a 229 to 57 margin to extend "local self-government in individual districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions" -- once all Russian troops and arms are withdrawn from Ukraine's war-scarred east.
The measure is required because the initial three-year period of partial autonomy set in a moribund 2014 peace deal expires on October 18.

The legislation strikes at the core of an intractable Ukrainian problem -- putting an end to one of Europe's deadliest modern wars and reunifying the country while getting Russia to admit it is behind fighting in which more than 10,000 have died.
The pro-EU leaders who rose to power after a February 2014 revolution toppled the Kremlin-backed leadership view the bloodshed as an effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to continue exerting control over Kiev.

The Kremlin denies any involvement despite overwhelming eyewitness evidence of its tanks and troops crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border into the war zone since fighting broke out in April 2014.

The local self-government rule never technically went into effect in the insurgent-run regions. Both Western states and OSCE monitors back Kiev's assertion that thousands of Russia's troops and its weapons are still based in the conflict zone.
But the provision is demanded by Russia and viewed by some Western diplomats as the only way to keep alive sputtering peace negotiations periodically held in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
One of Ukraine's top representatives to the Minsk talks pleaded with deputies to adopt the bill in an emotional address that came in the heat of a passionate parliamentary session full of pushing and shoving.

"We cannot free our occupied territories only through military means," Iryna Gerashchenko said.
"We have to unite the diplomatic tracks with the military ones," she said.
"So our goal is create this synergy -- to beef up our military and beef up our diplomacy," Gerashchenko said.
The US embassy in Kiev tweeted ahead of the vote that it supported "efforts to extend special status to enable peaceful resolution in eastern Ukraine".
One Western official told AFP that the legislation was demanded by Russia and therefore essential for keeping the hope of finally ending the conflict alive.
Partial autonomy would allow the Russian-backed regions to set up their own police forces and even court systems.

Lawmakers also passed legislation in the first of two readings proclaiming the war a Russian "occupation" in which Moscow finances the fighters and supports "terrorist activity".
The 233 to 32 decision comes close to enacting into law what Kiev has been arguing repeatedly for years.