Moscow yesterday gave a guarded welcome to the Ukraine parliament’s decision to grant temporary autonomy to the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.

The Foreign Ministry posted a statement on its website saying that the proposed legislation “creates the foundation for launching a substantive constitutional process in Ukraine, including the start of a dialogue intended to help national reconciliation and accord in the country.”

The autonomy decision ratified by the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, together with a partial amnesty for those who have resisted Kiev’s fascist-led onslaught in the east of the country, has angered some of the government’s nationalist supporters.

However, it has also been rejected by those in Lugansk and Donetsk who regard links with Kiev as no longer relevant.

Donetsk People’s Republic Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko dismissed the Ukraine government’s call for regional elections in December.

He said that local people would “decide ourselves when and what kind of elections we will have. We will not have any elections organised by Ukraine.”

Mr Zakharchenko said that he had no intention of going to the Belarusian capital Minsk for the next session of peace talks facilitated by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

People’s Republic co-chairman Andrei Purgin said that there were no plans to develop any political relationship, federal or otherwise, with Ukraine.

Mr Purgin added that Ukraine’s parliament only voted on laws for Ukraine and “we have our own higher council which makes our own laws.”

Two civilians were killed in the city of Donetsk yesterday in a brief outbreak of shelling.