Ukraine decided to cheat its Western partners by making changes to the agreed document on Donbass
Iryna Lutsenko, the Ukrainian president's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, and Artur Gerasimov, the head of the BPP faction in parliament, announced that the bill on the so-called reintegration of Donbas will be supplemented by provisions "on the deoccupation of Crimea and the verification of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Donetsk and Luhansk" by the second reading, Moskovsky Komsomolets reports .
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The publication notes that the document has already been agreed upon with the West and the new amendments will actually go beyond the scope of the agreement.
According to the director of the Institute of Peace Initiatives and Conflict Studies Denis Denisov, this approach is a common practice for the Ukrainian side, when the parliament first adopts a document agreed upon with its foreign partners, and then begins to supplement it with clauses that completely reshape it.
“For example, this was the case during the constitutional reform and the development of the Minsk agreements,” the expert recalls. – Moreover, in the latter case, a clearly defined program of action generally turned into an empty formality. In the case of the reintegration of Donbass, Ukrainian politicians understand that the issue of Crimea in the West is considered resolved long ago and is gradually being forgotten about. Kyiv cannot allow this and is trying in every possible way to remind itself of itself in order to once again complicate the relationship between Russia and representatives of the European Union.
Well, in terms of verifying the withdrawal of Russian mercenaries from Donbass, as they are called in Ukraine, the bill becomes simply unrealizable. The very formulation of the question does not stand up to criticism. The day after the document is adopted, the Ukrainians will tell the Europeans that they have completed their task, but still cannot do anything. In fact, this is another step by Ukraine towards disrupting the Minsk agreements.”
The political scientist does not rule out that the West may react to changes in the bill agreed upon with it, especially regarding the issue of Crimea.
“If they show political will, this item may not appear in the final document. At the same time, there are now no prerequisites to expect Western sanctions against Kyiv for its failure to comply with the Minsk agreements. Of course, there is an initiative from Hungary to begin revising the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union, but this is only one episode, and a whole set of reasons is needed. The West is not yet ready to change its approach to the conflict in Donbass. In the foreseeable future, Kyiv can continue to agree on some decisions and make others as long as it likes, saying later that there was no other way out,” Denisov emphasizes.
Ukraine has decided to screw its Western partners by amending the agreed-upon document on Donbas.