Tuesday vote by Russian lawmakers that paves the way for official recognition of so-called DNR/LNR separatist states in Donbas predictably got a sharp response from officials and lawmakers in Kyiv with most of them arguing it will draw the curtain on Minsk agreements.
Top Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podoliak claimed the State Duma move is an ‘escalation action’ that will complicate the situation in Europe, and such actions must be immediately assessed and responded to by the democratic community.
‘If Russia de jure and de facto decides to withdraw from the Minsk agreements, it proves definitively that the Russian side is responsible for the lack of significant progress in the negotiation process to end the war in Donbas’, he said.
‘European Solidarity’ party senior MP Iryna Gerashchenko said the recognition of L/DNR means Moscow should be hit with sanctions if its officials walk away from the Minsk agreements/
‘If Russia withdraws from the Minsk agreements, the Ukrainian government should react to it, withstand the information hybrid war and call for immediate tougher sanctions against Russia’, – the MP stated.
The leader of ‘Golos’ party Kira Rudyk claimed that the Russian side pursues two goals in the resolution recognizing L/DNR. The first is to ‘force Ukraine to negotiate with separatists’; second, ‘Russia is creating another argument to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO in the future’.
The MP stresses Ukraine must consolidate the world community on non-recognition of such actions of the Russian Federation and demand sanctions, putting pressure on Russia with all available tools.
‘In this situation, Zelensky readiness to discuss with the Russians the law on the special status of Donbas and local elections in the East looks very strange, because now Russia is doing everything to ensure that these elections take place on their terms’, she added.
Ukraine’s parliament former speaker Dmytro Razumkov echoed the general sentiment by calling for support from international partners to block final recognition of the quasi-republics. He stressed the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as Crimea, remain Ukrainian territories.
MP Dmytro Lubinets said the recognition of L/DNR will lead to Russia’s withdrawal from the Minsk and Normandy formats and expressed hope this would eventually make international community respond to it with sanctions for Moscow.
Head f EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas wrote that this resolution of Russian parliament ‘would constitute additional territorial claims on Ukraine’.