RIA Novosti: Kiev Preparing Border Control Proposals for Russia, International Community: Nuland

KIEV, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine will present Russia and the international community with proposals regarding the restoration of control over Ukraine’s eastern border, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland said Wednesday.

“The Ukrainian side is now articulating a very concrete proposal for international monitoring for restoration of the sovereignty of the international border, which they will put to the Russian Federation, they will put to the international community, and then we will be able to support that,” Nuland, who is currently on a visit to Ukraine, said.

On October 6, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made a proposal to the country’s parliament to review the issue of changing the borders of the southeastern Luhansk Region’s districts.

Poroshenko’s parliamentary envoy, Ruslan Kniazevych, said the move was necessary to improve social services in some of the region’s districts that are under the Kiev government’s control.

The status of Ukraine’s eastern regions remains a stumbling block in the settlement of the country’s crisis. On September 16, the Ukrainian parliament approved a bill granting special status to the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics (LPR and DPR) for the next three years.

The law gave the Ukrainian Cabinet and other central executive bodies the power to sign agreements with local administrative bodies on social, economic, cultural and other issues.

LPR and DPR leaders have laid claim to the entire territory within the borders of the respective regions and want full independence.