Given the information from open sources, tomorrow the Ukrainian parliament may vote for submitting the draft amendments to the fundamental law of Ukraine, introduced by Zelensky, for the Constitutional Court’s further consideration.
DPR Foreign Affairs Minister Natalya Nikonorova says, “It is noteworthy that the draft project on “decentralization” of the country has nothing in common with the notion of decentralization that Paragraph 11 of the Complex of Measures spells out. Let me remind you that it speaks of the decentralization taking into account the peculiarities of Donbass and in coordination with its representatives. At that, these peculiarities are listed in the note to this paragraph. Among them, there are the right to language self-determination, participation in the appointment of prosecutors and judges, conclusion of agreements by local governments with the central executive authorities, a special economic regime, the People’s Militia, the right to cooperation with Russia, etc.
The document introduced by the Ukrainian president does not contain any words about the special status of Donbass, although its enshrinement in the Constitution is one of the essential conditions for a long-term and effective political settlement of the conflict.
Moreover, Zelensky is overtly trying to throw the very notion of “district”, which underlies the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, out of the fundamental law of the country.
Accordingly, the Ukrainian authorities are not going to grant a special status to Donbass but intend to constitutionally disable this very possibility.
Not to mention the fact that Kiev has not submitted any draft constitutional amendments for the Contact Group’s approval or any other draft regulations that Ukraine adopts in relation to Donbass. Such an approach fundamentally contradicts Ukraine’s political commitments under both the Complex of Measures and the final communique of the Normandy format leaders, which clearly states that the two parties to the conflict need to agree on all matters related to its settlement.
We come to the conclusion that the word “decentralization” itself is the only common thing between Zelensky’s initiative and the directives of the Minsk Agreements in terms of the constitutional reform. But in fact, the only thing left of this notion is the verbal envelope that covers up the Ukrainian leadership’s self-initiated activity, which is out of touch with reality and contradicts the Complex of Measures.
Besides, for other regions of Ukraine, this “decentralization” means nothing else but a greater centralization of power. In particular, the project provides for the introduction of a supervisory mechanism represented by prefects who are appointed and subordinate to the president and have authority to revoke any act of local self-government bodies. At that, the Ukrainian leadership did not bother to discuss and coordinate those initiatives even with their own citizens, organizations or associations of local self-government. There has been a striking example: recently, the Association of Ukrainian Cities made a series of official statements about the harmfulness of Zelensky’s initiatives to the local self-government and called on the Ukrainian parliament to reject this draft constitutional reform.
We again draw your attention to the fact that the Republics do not and will never accept any of the intentions or actions of the Ukrainian leadership in relation to Donbass until they are submitted for our approval.
Moreover, the draft project Zelensky submitted for the Ukrainian parliament’s consideration has nothing to do with the internal conflict in Donbass or with the Minsk process in general, we see in it only an outright imitation and substitution of notions, but a real desire to settle the conflict is nowhere near,” the DPR Foreign Minister commented.