The constitutional amendment will increase self-government powers of autonomous local units in Ukraine, including the introduction of the principle of subsidiarity and the possibility that the units can pass acts in their territories.

But Russia says Ukraine has not incorporated the views of the DPR and the RPL constitutional amendment: "[The Ukrainians] absolutely ignore the [republics'] proposals on all issues of political reform," Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin argued.

Point 11 of the agreement states that Minsk II constitutional reform should include "a reference to the specificities of certain areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, agreed with the representatives of these areas." Such a reference cannot be found in the version of the amendment as published in English by the Venice Commission.

Reacting to this, DPR leader Alexandr Zakhartxenko announced his republic would be holding local elections on 18 October: "The Donetsk People's Republic has to independently start to implement the Minsk agreements in order to rescue them," he said. "We will begin acting immediately, without waiting for Kyiv to come to its senses and return to real, not fake, talks," he added.

Meanwhile, sporadic infighting continues on the frontline. From the start of the war last year, 6,500 people have died, according to UN data. More than 1.3 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine, and more than 900,000 have taken refuge abroad -most of them are people from the Donbass having fled to Russia.