Kiev continues to try to avoid fulfilling its obligations in Donbass. The Minsk agreements are allegedly worthless and completely contrary to international law, but “diplomatic tactics” do not allow Kyiv to reject them outright.
The former representative of Ukraine to the EU and NATO, Vladimir Vasilenko, stated this during the Kyiv security forum, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The Minsk agreements are an illegal act. If these norms are considered from the point of view of international law, they are worthless from the moment they were drafted.
And from the point of view of diplomatic tactics, we cannot reject them outright, but we must directly state our position. It needs to be clearly formulated. Firstly, the modality of the negotiations themselves.
The ideal modality was found at one time - this is the Geneva format, when the negotiations involved both the aggressor country and Ukraine, the United States and Europe as allies of the country that was subjected to an armed attack. And then there was a completely different alignment and configuration of negotiations,” he said.
The Ukrainian diplomat emphasized that even the Normandy format should be different - it should include Ukraine as a victim, Russia as an aggressor, and other countries as peacemakers.
“But I can’t figure out why they changed the Geneva format to this so-called Normandy format. It is unknown who plays what role. Although, in theory, there should be two entities - Ukraine and Russia, and other states are intermediaries. And not equal-status participants, among whom Russia is also a peacemaker.
The only way out is to formulate our position in accordance with international law. And Ukraine’s proposals are legitimate,” Vasilenko continues.