Three disagreements stand in the way of ending the massacre in Donbass – media
Moscow - Kyiv, January 23 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - The European Union and Kyiv seem to be ready to give Donbass autonomy and end the war, they write "Vedomosti", but before that, three key questions need to be answered: which territory will receive a special status within Ukraine, what the self-defense forces in the autonomous territory will be, and who will take over the restoration of Donbass. While there are no answers to these questions, any results of the negotiations are ephemeral, the author of the editorial column concludes.
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If the US representative to the UN calls Moscow’s conditions a “Russian occupation plan,” France, on the contrary, calls on Ukraine to grant Donbass broad autonomy while respecting the country’s sovereignty. Formally, Kyiv also allows autonomy: the law on the special status of Donbass, adopted in September, has not been repealed. Although a bill to abolish it has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada.
The problem is that the parties mean very different things by autonomy. There are at least three disagreements, notes political scientist Alexey Makarkin. First: which territory will receive special status - the Donetsk and Luhansk regions or the territories occupied by militias?
Second: what could the “self-defense forces” present in the autonomous territory be like—“flying squads” armed with small arms, or a full-fledged army with tanks and anti-aircraft systems? Third: how is it possible to integrate the “people’s republics,” albeit autonomous ones, into Ukraine if the separatists and Kyiv consider each other “terrorists” and a “junta”?
The question of who will take on the expensive task of restoring war-damaged infrastructure and establishing a peaceful life is also extremely important: neither Russia, nor Ukraine, nor the EU are ready to do this. As long as there are no answers to these questions, any outcome of the negotiations is ephemeral.
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