Putin demands an end to the ATO: What about “dear partners”?
The frequency of shelling of the cities of the people's republics of Donbass by the artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has reached the level of 2014. The only difference is that the punishers do not hit areas with MLRS of all calibers, do not launch tactical missiles and do not use phosphorus ammunition.
At the recent economic forum in St. Petersburg, President Putin, answering a journalist’s question about the reasons for the continuation of the conflict, noted that the main obstacle to any peace processes in Donbass is the so-called ATO
by the Ukrainian security forces, without the abolition of which the process of starting an amnesty is impossible, there is no special status for the territories, there is no discussion of local elections, and the list goes on. Putin also mentioned that the amnesty law had not yet been agreed upon by the Ukrainian authorities. On the one hand, such a law was adopted in parliament, but does not take effect due to the fact that it was not signed by Poroshenko.
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Poroshenko very quickly found a weak point in the Minsk Agreement and began to systematically disrupt the political process through military provocations with shelling, taking advantage of the obliging blindness of observers from the OSCE. And this can continue for a very long time, until one of the parties loses their nerve, or becomes dizzy from impunity. That is why Putin made a demand to Poroshenko to ban the so-called ATO, since this ban will make it possible to separate the political and military components of the problem.
“There is nothing strange in Putin’s statement - the Minsk agreements imply the adoption of an amnesty law, a ceasefire, etc. But the fact is that in order to reach the amnesty clause, it is necessary to fulfill the previous points - disengagement and withdrawal of troops, cessation of shelling, etc. something that was not done. The first points have still not been fulfilled. Therefore, until hostilities stop, there is no possibility of implementing other points,” says the Kiev political scientist Bondarenko's bone.
“The Minsk negotiations themselves are focused on achieving a peaceful settlement. All parties involved believe that there is no military solution. The President of Ukraine publicly acknowledges this. In this situation, the continuation of the so-called The ATO contradicts the very meaning of the Minsk negotiations. If we want to achieve progress, we must stop the military operation. Everyone understands that the beautiful word “ATO” covers up an ordinary military operation. And Putin said that if we want to achieve a peaceful settlement and we agree with this, then the ATO must be stopped,” notes the political scientist Mikhail Pogrebinsky.
“We know that in order to keep the ATO in force, information from the SBU regularly appears that some terrorist groups have been liquidated, three hundred terrorist attacks have been prevented, etc. That is, the Ukrainian side is ready for these claims and always refers to the fact that some kind of terrorist war is going on. But none of the European and American partners ever says anything like that. Everyone understands perfectly well that there is no anti-terrorist operation. There is no terrorism. We know that there were terrorist attacks, but they were public and known - this is the terrorist attack near parliament, when they threw a bomb and killed several people. And we know who is involved in this. This is an obvious terrorist attack. As for the stories that 300 terrorist attacks were prevented, the SBU must provide evidence. So far, as far as I know, no evidence has been presented for this. There are allegations, but there is no evidence,” he continues.
“Ending the ATO is not Putin’s wish, it is an objective necessity for the country. All world leaders and all participants in the Minsk process speak about the need for peace. This does not reach only the current Ukrainian government, which at one time started the ATO in order to strengthen itself, continued this war, which it does not officially call a war, preferring to hide it under the abbreviation “ATO” in order to stay in power and does not stop it, receiving both economic and political dividends from this. And until the war is stopped and peace is achieved, it is impossible to talk about any restoration of the economy, the achievement of a more or less normal state of society, it is impossible to talk about any future of Ukraine,” the Kiev political scientist is sure Evgeniy Filindash.
So, Putin has already said his weighty word. Now we will see how soon it will reach not only the ears, but also the consciousness of “respected partners” and, especially, the twilight consciousness of the drunken Ukrainian “guarantor”. Time is running out. It will not be possible to postpone elections and the peace process indefinitely.
The move to ban the ATO is, of course, good and will become another litmus test for Kyiv’s actions, although countless litmus tests and markers have already been thrown into this mess.
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