Ukraine in Arabic | Ukrainian president cancells a special status for Donbass
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko says he's prepared to ditch the law that grants special status to the eastern regions of Ukraine after the secessionist leaders held an election there on Nov. 2.
According to Poroshenko, "we have demonstrated to the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as to the whole world, that Kyiv is sincere in its desire for the political settlement. Militants have rejected this opportunity."
Besides he met with his security chiefs on Tuesday after pro-Russian rebels held elections that proved they would never again be ruled by Kiev.
Separatist leaders in Luhansk and Donetsk claimed victory in the votes in the east of the country, which Poroshenko condemned as an “electoral farce” and said had violated a peace accord agreed in September.
The Ukrainian president said in televised address late on Monday that he intended to scrap a law that would have offered special status to areas in the east, including those controlled by the rebels.
Kiev says the peace accord provided only for election of local officials under Ukrainian law, and not for separatist ballots aimed at bringing in leaders of breakaway entities who seek close association or even union with Russia. It said it would open criminal cases against the organizers.
“The pseudo-election torpedoed the law and sharply aggravated the situation,” Poroshenko said, vowing to deal with only “legitimately elected local self-government bodies, but not … bandits who crown themselves.”
Russia has not recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” as independent, but said the vote should be respected. It gave a cautious backing to the votes. President Vladimir Putin’s first word on the weekend election could come on Tuesday when he is due to appear at a Red Square ceremony in Moscow marking National Unity day.
Most other countries have dismissed the vote as illegitimate and there were no recognised international observers present. Nevertheless, the poll was one more step in the de facto separation of the region from the rest of Ukraine.
“The elected representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk regions obtained a mandate to hold negotiations with central Ukrainian authorities to solve problems … via a political dialogue,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Georgy Karasin, said.
Kiev seemingly gave up its attempts to regain control of the territories militarily after a rebel push apparently backed by regular Russian forces routed Ukrainian forces in August. According to the agreement brokered in Minsk, the territories should have special status within Ukraine, but the facts on the ground show that the regions have split completely.
The rebels have threatened to launch a renewed military assault on the city of Mariupol, part of the Donetsk region but currently under Ukrainian control.
Western diplomats have been left guessing exactly what Moscow wants in the region. It seems clear the Kremlin does not want to annex the territory Crimea-style, but Moscow’s talk of negotiations between the separatists and Kiev was at odds with reports from Donetsk.
“Kiev has to come to terms with the idea that Donbass is not part of Ukraine,” said Roman Lyagin, head of the separatists’ electoral committee. “Whether they will recognize the result of our vote or not is Kiev’s problem.”
A spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Berlin found it incomprehensible that “official Russian voices” should recognize the election, while the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, called on Russia to respect the unity of Ukraine.
In the absence of real voter lists, there was no way to measure the turnout properly but there were long queues of voters at several polling stations the Guardian visited on Sunday. The majority of people said they were voting for peace and for a future separate from Ukraine. Many people expressed a desire for Russia to seize the region in the same way it annexed Crimea from Ukraine this year.
Hundreds of thousands of people have left the region, some to other parts of Ukraine and some to Russia, where they have been put up in refugee camps near the border or housed in cities across Russia. It is unclear how many will return.
Many people on the streets of Donetsk expressed happiness at the vote, regarding it as one more step towards ensuring Kiev’s forces will not return. Artillery booms were still audible as a small contingent of Ukrainian forces remained locked in battle with the rebels at Donetsk airport.
Most of those who supported a unified Ukraine left Donetsk as the situation turned nastier, while those who have remained have kept quiet in an atmosphere of fear, in which those suspected of pro-Kiev sympathies could be arrested or worse.
“I have retained a little bit of hope that maybe this will all end, that maybe we will wake up and it will be a bad dream,” said one young woman who has remained in Donetsk throughout the year, mainly due to love for her job. “But now it’s obvious that there’s going to be nothing good here. I’m going to move to Kiev.”