Why Ukraine should be required to pay pensions in Donbass

 Sergey Buntovsky, writer, historian, journalist, Donetsk

So, after the Minsk agreements, the Ukrainian-Donbass front stabilized, the intensity of the fighting decreased noticeably, and even refugees began to return to their abandoned homes. In accordance with the decisions reached in the Belarusian capital, the exchange of prisoners began, although it had to be stopped for a curious reason - the Ukrainians, instead of captured soldiers of the armed forces of New Russia, began to hand over civilians who had nothing to do with the militia. Ukrainian politicians are generally masters of their word, they want - they give, they want - they take, and at every opportunity they strive to “dump” their partners, but in this case, Kiev’s “cunning” failed, and the indignant Donetsk residents refused to release captured Ukrainian soldiers until the soldiers received freedom mining region.

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So the meeting in Minsk and the subsequent adoption of the law on the special status of Donbass still turned out to be not entirely fruitless, although almost everyone was dissatisfied with these negotiations.

The Minsk agreements are openly called a betrayal by both Ukrainian nationalists and many of my fellow countrymen. This may be the first time in the last year that activists from all opposing forces have shown such unanimity in their judgments. I am well aware that there is no ceasefire after Minsk, and the law “on the special status” of Lugansk and Donetsk is so imperfect that its practical significance tends to zero.

However, the very fact of the start of negotiations makes it possible over time to transfer the struggle for the creation of Novorossiya or the preservation of Ukraine to the political plane. After Minsk, the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics were legitimized, which moved from the category of terrorist groups to the ranks of participants in the political process. De facto, Ukraine was forced to recognize the new republics, and now sooner or later this will happen de jure. Of course, this will be a complex and drawn-out process, which will be interrupted by the escalation of hostilities and internal turmoil in Kyiv and Donbass, but the space for political dialogue has already been created. The parties have already announced their maximum plans, and now bargaining will slowly proceed until a compromise is found that suits everyone.

It is extremely important for the Ukrainian authorities to maintain, if not control, then at least the appearance of control over the east of the country. Donbass, since Russia refused to include it in the Federation, needs to build its own government institutions and, most importantly, ensure financial stability in the region. At the same time, for the majority of residents of the region, legal issues are of much less importance than the regularity of payment of salaries and pensions.

Accordingly, the authorities of the DPR and LPR may not push the issue of legal recognition of their independence on the part of Kiev, limiting themselves to some kind of autonomous status, but at the same time they will obtain from Poroshenko guarantees of long-term non-interference of Kiev in the economic and political processes of the region, as well as leaving the DPR and The LPR receives the lion's share of taxes collected from enterprises located here, even if they are legally registered in the capital. In addition, it will be fair if social benefits and pensions in Donbass are paid from the Ukrainian budget, since, firstly, for many years before retirement, Donetsk residents paid taxes to the all-Ukrainian pension fund, and secondly, this will be a kind of rent for legal preservation of the integrity of Ukraine.

It is clear that Poroshenko, before the elections in Ukraine and the concentration of complete power over the country in his hands, simply cannot agree to the demands of Donbass, since this will bury his rating, but on the other hand, words about the decentralization of power appeared in his rhetoric, which, in combination with the lobbied presidential forces, the law on the special status of Donbass will allow us to conclude that Kyiv is ready for dialogue.

By the way, the adoption of the law on the special status of Donbass has one interesting consequence. For the first time (not counting the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), special relations between a specific region and the republican center are legally established. This has created a precedent that can be used by the elites of other regions of Ukraine - for example, Kharkov or Odessa - to significantly expand the rights of their regions up to the complete transformation of the country into a federation.

Although, most likely, deputies from Western Ukraine will demand a special status for their regions. It’s fortunate that they have every reason for this, because it was their region that provided the majority of the volunteers who went to fight in the Donbass. Moreover, it seems that it was the Westerners who became the backbone of the volunteer battalions created in various regions of the country, supposedly from local patriots. At least this is the conclusion that can be drawn after it became clear that the dead soldiers of the Odessa special-purpose battalion “Storm” were natives of Western Ukraine. Accordingly, the elite of Galicia and Volyn have the moral right to demand compensation for the blood shed, and there is a force ready to give credibility to this request with arms in hand.

So we may soon witness how the federal ideas voiced in the spring in Donbass will take root in Ukraine.