Ukrainian Rada passes legislation on Donbas
KYIV. Jan 18 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada has passed legislation on specifics of state policy on ensuring state sovereignty of Ukraine in temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The bill got support from 280 deputies at a parliament session on Thursday, an Interfax correspondent reported.
"Qualified as temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are those parts of Ukrainian territory within which Russian armed groups and an occupation administration have been established and are exercising general control, namely the lands and internal waters within certain districts, cities, communities, and villages in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the internal sea waters adjacent to this territory, the subsurface resources under these territories, and the airspace above these territories," the legislation reads.
The bill stipulates that "the temporary occupation of Ukrainian territory by the Russian Federation, regardless of its duration, is illegal and does not give the Russian Federation any territorial rights."