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 The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in the
Donbass region said the decision undermined a protocol agreed at
talks on Sept. 5 in the Belarussian capital, Minsk, under which a
ceasefire went into effect in east Ukraine.
Poroshenko, who accuses the rebels of violating the Minsk agreement
by holding leadership elections on Sunday, said on Tuesday that he
wanted parliament to scrap the law offering "special status" to the
eastern regions.
The law would have given Donetsk and Luhansk limited rights to run
their own affairs and shield separatist fighters from prosecution.
"Kiev's cancellation of the special status for Donbass causes
serious damage to the Mink peace process," the pro-Russian
separatists said in a joint statement.
 Signalling they believed this nullified the Minsk agreements, they
added: "The DNR and LNR cannot act on the basis of a document from
which Poroshenko has removed fundamentally important points."
They said they were ready to renegotiate the Minsk agreement,
intended to help end a conflict in which more than 4,000 people have
been killed in eastern Ukraine since the separatists rose up against
Kiev's rule in mid-April.
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Poroshenko has said he will propose a new law to provide a "special
economic zone" for the Donbass region and set a new date for
hoped-for Ukrainian-run local elections, originally planned for
early December. The crisis in Ukraine has caused the biggest rift
in relations between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold
War.
(Reporting by Thomas Grove and Alexander Winning in Moscow, Writing
by Timothy Heritage, Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
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