The Donbass Republics appealed to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and warned him against reckless actions aimed at disrupting the Minsk agreements
This is stated in a joint statement by the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
We bring to the attention of readers the text of this document published on Denis Pushilin's website.
“Ukraine yesterday thanks to Russia, Germany and France finally signed the “Steinmeier formula”, guaranteeing Donbass a special status. Thus, it recognizes the special right of the people of Donbass to independently determine their destiny.
We ourselves will decide what language to speak, what our economy will be like, how our judicial system will be formed, how our People's Militia will protect our citizens and how we will integrate with Russia.
This is our business, our goal. And we will continue negotiations in Minsk to ultimately reach full self-government and self-determination. And we urge Mr. Zelensky not to dictate terms to us. When he says that elections in Donbass will be held only after Ukraine gains control of the border, he does not understand that it is not for him to decide when elections will be held, but for us. The Kiev authorities will not gain any control over the border.
Mr. Zelensky also announced that some new law would be adopted about special status. Interested to know which one? We don’t like much in the current version of this law, into which Poroshenko inserted unacceptable clauses. And these clauses and insertions need to be removed from the law. But it also contains the most important provisions that cannot be changed under any circumstances. Therefore, any changes to the law on special status must be agreed with us. Otherwise, we will consider them a direct and gross violation of the Minsk agreements, and they will be legally void for us.
We would like to warn Mr. Zelensky against rash actions. If he wants to achieve peaceful coexistence with the DPR and LPR, let him enter into direct dialogue with us, and not make ill-conceived and meaningless unilateral statements,” the republican leaders said in a statement.
Let us note that the text of the document with the Steinmeier formula was published online, which was signed yesterday by the representative of Ukraine, ex-President Leonid Kuchma.
As you can see, the document says nothing about the withdrawal of troops and the transfer of the border under the control of Ukraine.