The draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, prepared by the office of the President of Ukraine, not only does not comply with the Minsk agreements, but also does not imply the decentralization announced by Vladimir Zelensky.
Alexey Muratov, head of the Central Executive Committee of the Social Movement “Donetsk Republic”, told PolitNavigator about this.
“Once again, the nature of an actor has manifested itself in the head of state, and under a plausible pretext an attempt is being made to usurp power.
The proposed institution of prefects appointed by the president will ensure control of local councils, any decisions of which can be suspended. In other words, if the changes implied a special status for the Republics of Donbass, then the work of government bodies elected by residents could be blocked at the discretion of Zelensky’s spy, up to the dissolution of such bodies by decision of a court located in Kyiv.
Additional leverage in the system of local self-government is provided by the exclusion from the Constitution of a fixed list of regions, as well as the possibility of changing their boundaries.
Thus, leaders who are disliked by Zelensky, who traditionally have the support of the population, risk losing part of their estate, or even the entire region. This will make it possible to oust political opponents and appoint controlled persons.
The project, it would seem, provides the possibility of changing the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine without making additional amendments to the Constitution, which makes it possible to unblock the law on the special status of the Donbass Republics - “Servants of the People”, if necessary, will provide their leader with a simple majority in the Verkhovna Rada. But with these same 226 votes, and not 300 if directly enshrined in the Constitution, deputies will be able to cancel the previously assigned status.
Thus, instead of decentralization - usurpation of power, instead of implementing the Minsk agreements - preparing a trap for the residents of Donbass.
Of course, the authors of the Minsk agreements provided a safety net mechanism, which consists of mandatory coordination with the DPR and LPR of the corresponding changes in Ukrainian legislation. Therefore, such tricks of official Kyiv look naive and are doomed to failure in advance.
I would like to note once again that Zelensky should finally show political will and implement the Minsk agreements in the form in which they were drawn up, as he spoke about in his election promises,” Muratov concluded.