Ukraine's self-rule offer slows rebel independence drive

Kiev (AFP) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's push for peace with pro-Russian insurgents appeared to pass its first test Tuesday when most agreed to study his limited self-rule offer while defending their demands for full independence.

But the high-risk bid to halt five months of bloodshed by loosening central rule enough to keep the country whole was pilloried by Ukrainian nationalists who are shaping into the next big challenge for the pro-Western leader.

A closed-door parliament meeting broke up after two hours with 277 of the chamber's 450 members backing Poroshenko's decision to grant parts of the Russian-speaking east three years of almost complete autonomy.

The remarkable session -- punctuated by the ratification of a landmark EU pact that pulls Ukraine out of Moscow's tight embrace -- also gives the rebel-held Donetsk and Lugansk regions the right to use Russian and to set up their own police force.

The regions will be able to establish closer ties with counterparts on the Russian side of the border and create their own local councils in December 7 elections.

A separate law grants amnesty to fighters from both sides, protecting them from criminal prosecution over what rights groups say are abuses that could be classified as war crimes.

The concessions form the heart of a European-brokered truce that Kiev and Moscow clinched on September 5 to stem a guerrilla war that has killed nearly 3,900 people and driven more than 600,000 from their homes across the bomb-scarred east.

But they also pose a dilemma for insurgent leaders who deny being Kremlin stooges and claim to represent the locals' sincere thirst for independence -- and possibly even annexation by Russia.

Donetsk "deputy prime minister" Andrei Purgin told AFP the self-rule law was "a positive signal" that deserved "carefully study".

"You can count the number of truly independent countries on one hand," Purgin separately told Russia's ITAR-TASS.

Lugansk leader Alexei Karyakin also told ITAR-TASS that the peace overture was "a step in the right direction".

But Purgin insisted to AFP that "complete self-rule will be introduced" in the long run and dismissively noted that "Ukraine was free to adopt any law it wants".

- 'These are bandits' -

Opinion polls conducted in the first weeks of the war showed two-thirds of eastern Ukrainians either backing the existing system or one extending local governments slightly broader rights.

Fighting has since made further surveys impossible. But random interviews in central Donetsk showed many wondering why the rebels invaded their cities in the first place.

"What is happening here is not a people's revolution. It is not a people's government. These are bandits who seized the city," said a retired mine worker named Roman.

A 41-year-old repairman named Andrei suggested that Donetsk should try "to be independent from both sides" -- Moscow and Kiev.

"But it will be hard economically," he conceded.

Poroshenko appears to be betting that a military campaign with a heavy civilian death toll would be far more difficult for the militias to justify with greater autonomy already secured.

He said after the vote that Ukraine was "now approaching a point at which people stop dying in the east and finally... have the chance to elect their own leaders."

"And will have to come to an understanding with these leaders, bringing people peace, calm and harmony."

- 'Capitulation' to Russia -

Yet concessions and dialogue appear to be running out of favour with many Ukrainian voters.

The first opinion poll conducted ahead of October 26 parliamentary elections showed Oleg Lyashko's right-wing Radical Party coming second with nearly 14 percent of the vote. Poroshenko's own bloc led the way with 46 percent.

Two more right-of-centre parties each had the support of eight percent of respondents and were sharing third place: the Civil Position party of former defence minister Anatoliy Grytsenko and ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) group.

Tymoshenko set the tone for her campaign by warning that the east would now be "taken under full control by the Russian military and terrorists funded, supported and sent to Ukraine on (President Vladimir) Putin's orders".

And nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party leader Oleg Tyagnybok branded Poroshenko's self-rule offer "our capitulation in the Russian-Ukrainian war".