Ukraine's pro-Russian insurgents took a big step toward political reconciliation on Tuesday by announcing they will push back disputed local elections into next year in line with Western demands.
The decision was welcomed by Kiev's pro-EU leadership and the Kremlin — one of the few times the ex-Soviet neighbours have agreed on anything since the conflict erupted last year. The European Union also called the concessionary move a "fundamental step" toward peace.
The change in rebel rhetoric coincided with the withdrawal of Ukrainian tanks from the demarcation line in one of the two separatist eastern industrial provinces. The chief negotiators of the self-proclaimed "people's republics" said they had "agreed to postpone the (Donetsk) elections of October 18 and the (lugansk) poll of November 1 until next year."
The announcement came just days after the leaders of Germany and France forced Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to sit down for direct negotiations in Paris aimed at saving a shaky truce in the 18-month war.
That meeting ended with French President Francois Hollande declaring that the rebels could not possibly organise internationally legitimate elections within such a short timeframe. Poroshenko has also called the votes "fake" and demanded their cancellation. Ukrainian officials said yesterday that Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had put strong pressure on Putin -- who denies any involvement in the fighting -- to convince the militia command to delay their vote.