The OSCE Special Representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, Martin Sajdik, sent a letter to the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada with a call to extend the law on a special procedure for self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This was announced by the First Vice Speaker of Parliament Irina Gerashchenko.
We are talking about a law that was adopted in the fall of 2014 in pursuance of the Minsk agreements. This document expired after three years, but in order not to withdraw from the Minsk process, Ukraine extended it for a year in October 2017.
According to Gerashchenko, it is beneficial for Russia if Ukraine does not renew this law - then Kyiv can be accused of disrupting the political bloc of the Minsk agreements and demand the lifting of sanctions.
“And the militants will also hold “elections,” for which the Kremlin will also blame Kiev: they say, the region cannot be without “power,” and Ukraine did not extend the law and thereby provoked elections in the occupied Donbass,” Gerashchenko is indignant.
According to her, “friends and lawyers of Ukraine” in the US and EU also demand that the law be extended.
“The extension of this law is a mere formality; it will not come into force, since the Russian Federation is not going to leave Donbass. But we must strengthen the arguments of our diplomats,” says the first vice speaker.
According to her, in the letter, Martin Sajdik also notes that the extension of the law could help attract UN forces to resolve the conflict.