A picture taken yesterday shows a Ukrainian tank destroyed by shelling from pro-Russian militants in the eastern Ukrainian region of Lugansk
AFP/Reuters/Kiev
Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday insisted they intend to break away and become independent, despite a vow from President Petro Poroshenko the restive east will remain part of Ukraine.
"We are not considering remaining part of Ukraine," Andrei Purgin, the deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, told AFP.
President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday he would submit to parliament a bill granting parts of the separatist east more autonomy but keeping it part of the ex-Soviet state.
"There is and can be no talk of federalisation or some estrangement (by the rebel-held regions)," he told a cabinet meeting "The law on temporary self-rule in individual districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions provides for a status that keeps these regions in Ukraine."
Poroshenko said Russia had moved the bulk of its forces he said had been in eastern Ukraine back onto Russian territory, raising hopes for the peace process.
Russia denies sending any troops into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian separatists battling Kiev's forces there, despite what Ukraine and the West say is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Moscow also denies arming the separatists.
"According to the latest information that I have received from our intelligence, 70 percent of Russian troops have been moved back across the border," Poroshenko told a government meeting.
"This further strengthens our hope that the peace initiatives have good prospects."
