Luhansk Rebels Open to Discussions with Ukraine's President

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region say they are open to a meeting with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko during his upcoming visit to the area "if he has a substantial topic" to discuss.

Although Poroshenko regularly visits Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where pro-Russian armed groups continue to hold territories near the Russian border, his visits have been on the government-held side of the contact line. The Ukrainian president has previously refused direct dialogue with Luhansk and Donetsk rebels and a contact group has instead been set up, where Ukraine is represented by former President Leonid Kuchma.

Poroshenko is due to visit Luhansk region on Wednesday and Vyacheslav Deynevo, the representative of the rebel group known as Luhansk People's Republic, told Russian radio RSN that the rebels would be open to meeting with the president.

"The main thing is that [such a meeting] is not a futile exercise," Deynevo said. "If he has a substantial topic to discuss then, please. We certainly have plenty of them. Until Poroshenko is ready for dialogue, we are not interested in his visit."

A spokesperson for the President said he has not planned and does not plan to meet with the self-appointed rebel authorities. The spokesperson added that the President would only meet representatives elected through elections recognized by the OSCE, which the rebel elections last year were not.

The Luhansk rebels are considered a criminal organization by Ukrainian law and discussions in the contact group between Ukrainian, rebel and Russian government representatives have not been smooth. In September, the leader of the Luhansk rebels, Igor Plotnitskiy, challenged Poroshenko to a duel to decide the outcome of the war.

Fighting has drastically subsided in recent weeks, with no violations of the ceasefire reported by either side for entire days - a rare occurrence prior to the summer. Both sides have begun to pull back heavy arms from the front lines in a bid to adhere to an end-of-year deadline to remove all major armaments, as agreed upon in the ceasefire deal brokered in Minsk, Belarus, in February.

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