Ukrainian Army combat engineers prepare foucade bombs for the destruction at Donbas(Donetsk region), Ukraine on June 12, 2014. (Xinhua/SIPA)
KIEV, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday signed a controversial law on the return of the conflicting region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine under Kiev's sovereignty.
"This law does not violate the international obligations of Ukraine, including the Minsk agreements," Poroshenko explained on his Facebook page after signing the law.
Last month, the Ukrainian parliament passed the law on the Donbas re-integration, which defines areas controlled by pro-independence rebels as "temporarily occupied territories.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it saw the law as "preparations for a new war" and accused Kiev of violating the Minsk deals designed to peacefully end the conflict in the Donbas.
The Minsk agreements, reached in September 2014 and February 2015 respectively, envisage a ceasefire, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line, a prisoner exchange and local elections, among other measures.
The conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region started in April 2014 after government forces launched offensives to regain control of the cities and towns seized by armed groups which declared independence from Kiev.
