Kiev says deployment of police mission key condition for E. Ukraine elections

The deployment of a police mission in eastern Ukraine is one of the key prerequisites for holding local elections in the area, the Ukrainian president's office said Friday.

"Without such a mission it is impossible to talk about a proper security and fairness of the elections," Konstantin Eliseev, deputy head of the presidential administration, told reporters, refering to such a mission under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

He said that Ukraine is now in talks with the other countries of the Normandy Quartet, namely Russia, Germany and France, over the prospects of sending the armed OSCE staff to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Holding local elections in accordance with Ukrainian law and under international observation is viewed by many experts as a major step towards political reconciliation between Kiev and independence-seeking insurgents, who have been engaged in a military conflict since April 2014.

The elections have been long delayed because of differing opinions of the conflicting sides on the format of the vote.

In May, rebel leader Alexandr Zakharchenko said that insurgents would consider the deployment of the armed OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine as an "act of aggression." Endi