The Kremlin said Wednesday that Moscow’s recognition of the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas, known as Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), would not be in line with the Minsk agreements.
Russia’s State Duma passed a resolution Tuesday asking Putin to recognize the DPR and LPR. “The president has received the request, he reacted to it, he took it into account,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “the recognition is not in line with the Minsk agreements.”
Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reaffirmed Moscow’s commitment to the Minsk agreements. “The Minsk agreements are the sole basis for settling the conflict in Donbas, which has no alternative,” she said.
The Minsk agreements were signed in 2014 and 2015 and established the ceasefire in the Donbas war, which is monitored by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
The Russian statements signal that as long as Moscow is committed to the Minsk agreements, Putin won’t recognize the DPR and LPR. Under the accords, Ukraine agreed to cede autonomy to the breakaway republics, but that still hasn’t happened.
Amid the current tensions, Ukrainian officials have said Kyiv shouldn’t be forced to implement the Minsk agreements. Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said giving autonomy to the separatists could “destroy” Ukraine due to the domestic opposition to the move.
An agreement is not in force if one, or both, sides refuse to honor it.
Since Ukraine has never fulfilled any major provision of Minsk agreements, claims it never will and wants NATO to help retake Donbass, how long before Putin admits the deal is dead and moves on to official recognition and protection for independent Donbass?
Moscow isn’t going to agree to something that is not in its interests. An independent and economically non-viable Donbas that could not serve as a veto on NATO membership as a part of Ukraine is not in Moscow’s interests.
Well, except that the Donbas republics are already independent.
And except that if they weren’t independent, they’d still have no “veto” on NATO membership.
Within the Minsk Accords Donbas would be part of Ukraine’s national electorate and shift the demographic Russia-ward.
They wouldn’t serve as a veto anyways. That’s pie in the sky. If you haven’t noticed by now, Washington does what it wants, legality be damned.
One of Moscow’s foibles is their silly obsession with legalism.
Crimea was autonomous the entire time it was attached to Ukraine 1954-2014. The argument that Donbas having autonomy would destroy Ukraine isn’t true, it might destroy this government but I think the country will accept it.
The country will, but not the West oriented plutocracy.
And yet Gilbert Doctorow wrote an article saying that since the Duma passed their resolution, Putin has now forced Ukraine to assert support for the Minsk agreements, and that all kinds of Ukrainian officials are now asking other countries for support of the Minsk agreements.
He provides no citations for this claim. I call bullshit.
What’s it going to take for Putin & Co to see that the silly Minsk Agreement is never going to be implemented? He is looking like a weak fool.
He’s exactly that! He’s too pathetic too lead a country like Russia. Try Zimbabwe.
Putin is a fool and a weakling.