The most significant Ukrainian nationalist bequeathed federalization
Oleg Izmailov, journalist, historian, Donetsk
There is a lot, a lot of political chatter around the law on the special status of Donbass (those areas that control the DPR and LPR). Neither the field commanders, nor even the leaders of the unrecognized Donetsk republics fell for the offer to surrender within a month, as proposed by this strange law, dragged through the Rada by Poroshenko in an incredibly short time and in the fraudulent manner familiar to the Kyiv brethren. Donetsk and Lugansk firmly stated - this is a Ukrainian law, for us it is not only not a law, not even a decree. But at the same time, they did not refute the positive significance of the appearance of this document.
By itself, this law really does not require detailed and thorough consideration. Moreover, in general, its initial provisions have already been absorbed by those who are supposed to do so by occupation - politicians. The most reasonable ones accept it as the first step of irreconcilable enemies towards each other, which will ultimately bring the warring parties to the negotiating table and make it possible to establish peace in the Donetsk basin. Both Deputy Prime Minister of the Donetsk Republic Andrei Purgin and Luhansk Prime Minister Igor Plotnitsky spoke about this. Many Russian and European politicians, public activists, government officials, and representatives of the business community still talk about this. In a word, all those for whom human blood is not water and those who want to live in peace and mutually enriching themselves.
Alas, the “hawks” from Kyiv completely disagree with this. Encouraged by their Washington comrades (who, as we know, are not our comrades at all), they are eager to fight until the bitter end, until the complete triumph of the Ukrainian national idea, which for these under-politicians is expressed in the fact that it is necessary to kill as many guys from Donetsk and Lutsk, Lugansk and Lvov, Kiev and Gorlovka, Zhitomir and Mariupol, Rovenky and Ternopil. They themselves, of course, will not go further than a cozy trench in a television studio. Despite the fact that some of them, like former Ukrainian Defense Minister Gritsenko, wear officer's shoulder straps. You can still understand Yarosh and his militants from the Right Sector - they fought, shed blood, so give us the Donbass to plunder, at least for three days, but in our humble opinion, in a normal country, Gritsenko would have been dealt with long ago by an officer’s court of honor. However, perhaps he will figure it out. How will the upcoming courts deal with all those who are already guilty of the death of several thousand residents of Donbass, those for whom a few dozen ruined children’s lives are not enough, those thanks to whose efforts funerals came to the homes of half of Ukraine. Those, after all, who made every effort to destroy the “state of Ukraine” project in one fell swoop in the 23rd year of its existence.
These same characters are ready to forever close the path to dialogue between East and West, the worse it is for them, the better, by the humiliation and destruction of one part of the population in what was now their country (still de facto, but they will do everything to make it de jure) to calm their complexes of provincials.
We are already seeing the fruits of political hysteria on their part - the deadline for the exchange of prisoners of war is being postponed, even those brief meetings of the Republicans with Charge d'Affaires of Ukraine Kuchma, thanks to which (together with the efforts of the armed forces of the Donbass republics) there are fewer shootings in the industrial region, have been postponed indefinitely. Poroshenko, who has parliamentary elections on the horizon, also backed down. He has already stated that the law is not about a special status, but about the features of self-government in the territories of Donbass. Businessman Poroshenko would not have had any trust after this, but politician Poroshenko can afford to call white black, especially Ukrainian politician Poroshenko.
But not only from Donbass, but from all sides of long-suffering Ukraine, the dull grumbling of the dissatisfied is heard. Local deputies, looking at Donbass, demand special rights and economic preferences for Odessa, Uzhgorod and Chernivtsi. Poroshenko understands that, following the Novorossiysk provinces, the pro-Romanian Bukovina and the Hungarian-Rusyn Transcarpathia, the thoroughly pro-Russian Slobozhanshchina (Kharkov, Sumy), populated in addition to Ukrainians by Belarusians, Litvins (descendants of Lithuanians) and Russians, Siverschyna (Cheringov), may demand their own. And then, you see, some Lemkoshchina will begin to demand special status.
These are all links in one process - the aspirations of peoples with different historical destinies and economic situations towards federalization. The need for it was seen a quarter of a century ago by the most significant Ukrainian nationalist, Vyacheslav Chernovol. The current government in Kyiv erects monuments to him, but it would, by God, not be bad if it honored not only his memory, but also his covenants.
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