Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group Leonid Kravchuk has refused to come to the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada to clarify his statement regarding the holding of elections in the Donbas in March 2021. He announced this in a letter to the committee.
A copy of the letter was posted by first deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organizing State Power, People's Deputy Roman Lozynskyi in his Telegram channel.
"As the head of the delegation, I work exclusively in the legal field of Ukraine. At the moment, I do not fully understand the legal grounds for summoning me as the head of the delegation, appointed by the decree of the President of Ukraine, for hearing in one of the committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. I would be sincerely grateful for providing me with the appropriate legal clarifications", - Kravchuk emphasized in response to the Verkhovna Rada committee.
As previously reported, on December 14, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organizing State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning invited Kravchuk to a meeting to hear clarifications regarding the intention to hold elections in the temporarily occupied territory of Donbas in March 2021. On December 17, first deputy head of the committee Roman Lozynskyi (the Voice faction) reported that Kravchuk had refused to attend the meeting of the Rada committee.
Kravchuk stated in November that the "Plan of Joint Steps" prepared by the Ukrainian side for the Trilateral Contact Group contained a proposal for a complete end to the conflict and demilitarization of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in early 2021 in order to create all the necessary conditions for holding local elections there on March 31, 2021.