Ukraine rebels offer to postpone local vote - separatist website

Vladislav Deinego, representative of the separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk republic, speaks to the media before leaving Belarus at Minsk's International airport January 30, 2015. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko

KIEV (Reuters) - Pro-Russian rebels proposed on Tuesday postponing the date of local elections in separatist parts of east Ukraine to February 2016 in an effort to lift peacemaking out of "stalemate," according to a statement posted on separatist website LITs.

Under terms of the much-violated Minsk peace agreement, reached in February, local elections were meant to be held in the separatist regions in tandem with the rest of the former Soviet republic this autumn. But the Ukrainian government has since said they cannot take place due to security and monitoring concerns.