Kiev might extend law on Special Status to imitate implementation of Minsk-2 - Miroshnik
Kiev might extend the law on the "Special order of self-governance" in Donetsk and Lugansk regions with a sole reason of imitating the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, said Rodion Miroshnik, LPR representative at the Contact Group's political subgroup,
"Kiev needs the extension of the special status of (Donbass) just to imitate the Minsk Agreements. It has nothing to do with the true settlement," he said.
Miroshnik added that some officials in Kiev have started mulling the possibility of yet another, fifth, extension of the law on the Donbass special status.
"The secretary of the National security and defence council Alexey Danilov has already verbally turned on the topic hinting at that it is high time for everyone to start pleading Rada to prolong the law at least formally."
"It is just we have to disappoint both Rada and Ze's entourage, represented by Danilov, with a quote from a famous film: All by yourself, you can do it! It's a self-service, not a restaurant!"
He described the situation as Ukraine "adopting the laws on their own, then resenting, overcoming the obstacles all on their own, and then again extending the law that has been blocked for seven years."
At the meeting in Minsk on October 1, 2019, the Contact Group signed the Steinmeier formula that set forth a mechanism to give special status to Donbass. On the same day, Zelensky said that the Steinmeier formula, coordinated by the “Normandy Four” and the Contact Group, would be included in the new law on special status for Donbass, which he said would be drawn by the parliament after public discussion.
In October 2014, Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko signed the law on special order of local self governance in certain areas of Donetsk and Lugansk Regions which granted them special status for three years. However, Ukraine has never applied the law in practice. Contrary to the Minsk Agreements and without coordinating his move with the Donbass Republics, Poroshenko introduced amendments to the law in March 2015 which in effect blocked its operation.
In early 2016, the then German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier suggested a mechanism to enforce the law on Donbass special status on the day of local elections on a temporary basis, and permanently upon the OSCE publishing its report on the elections outcome.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was adopted by the Contact Group on Ukraine on February 12, 2015 and supported by member states of the Normandy Four (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France). The UN Security Council approved the document by Resolution 2202 and called upon all the sides to ensure full implementation of the Package of Measures.
The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. *t
