At the talks in Minsk, the contact group approved Steinmeier’s formula. It determines the mechanism for introducing special status in the territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics after their accession to Ukraine. In the Minsk process, this is a significant advance: before that, the Ukrainian leadership refused to secure a special status for the Donbass, although now its status is nowhere to be found.
President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky has already stated that the formula should be implemented in the new law of Ukraine. There is no law yet - apparently, they will slowly develop it. Both Ukraine and LDNR noted that there are still inconsistent points. This is the breeding of forces in Petrovsky and Zolotoy and the exchange of prisoners.
A lot of words have been said. Dry squeeze: Ukraine agreed to hold local elections in the Donbass, to the law on special status, which will be applied on an interim basis before the election, and on a permanent basis after the election.
Ukrainian "patriots" did not like the alignment. "In any incomprehensible situation, reel the regime, go to the Maidan," they decided. And, in fact, went to the Maidan. It seems to be even quite massive. With torches, because it was already in the evening, and it was necessary to respond immediately - tomorrow the news line will leave. With banners "Hi capituli". That is, here is the special status of Donbass - this is surrender for Ukraine.
Similar "maydanchiks" were held in several other Ukrainian cities. True, quite “micromaidanchiki” turned out: several dozen “ATO veterans” came out to protest. In Mariupol, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Chernivtsi and Lviv. This, of course, does not mean that Kharkov, for example, is opposed to the Minsk process, it means that Biletsky’s guys from the Azov regiment nest there, who are for any movement except the world.
In general, of course, Zelensky was already an agent of the Kremlin for radical Ukrainians, but now everything with him became completely clear. Former President Petro Poroshenko called Steinmeier’s formula “Putin’s formula”. Firstly, in order to emphasize the “hail”, and secondly, in order not to focus on the fact that this scheme was actually proposed by the former German president, that is, the very Europe that Ukraine has been desperately striving for for five years now.
Poroshenko has no other relation to the Minsk talks. Russia's position in the Minsk talks is to force Ukraine to comply with the relevant agreements. The position of Ukraine is to evade these agreements. Recall that the points of the Minsk process were written down literally with the blood of the Ukrainian cyborgs who were next surrounded, so that Ukraine was actually forced to the Minsk process.
Poroshenko understood this perfectly. Zelensky’s attitude towards this is simpler, because he was not the president when the Ukrainian army was grinded in Ilovaisk and Debaltsev’s boilers. Therefore, Poroshenko could not sign the Minsk agreements. Zelensky can.
True, Zelensky takes a step forward - two back.
“If someone is there, there will be no election. We will never go to the polls if there are military men there. If there will be any, you understand, any troops, there will be no elections, ”the new Ukrainian president dragged on the old bagpipes.
An interesting position: it leaves for Ukraine the opportunity to endlessly drag out the situation. Because the LDNR troops, naturally, will not leave anywhere on their land. Nowhere for them to leave. These are not the notorious “Russian-terrorist” troops, which the Ukrainian authorities invariably refer to, should it start looking for any excuse not to fulfill its obligations. This, by the way, is the People’s Militia, the right to which is assigned to the Donbass by the same Minsk agreements.
And, of course, Zelensky could not help but recall that there is no law on special status in Ukraine yet, and whether it will be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada or not will be a separate issue. In general, I again hinted that the formula seems to be optional, and you can’t agree on it right away ...
On the other hand, Zelensky can be understood. If in one state, not separated by a demarcation line, there are militias and atoshniks, it will be fun and scary. So we have to invent new conditions and delay the implementation of the Minsk process itself.
In general, it is too early to speak about the integration of Donbass with Ukraine. A special status is registered, but there is no law on it. Elections will not be held as long as there are people with weapons in the Donbass - that is how they always will be. It seems that Zelensky continues the traditional, one might say, policy of the Ukrainian state that developed under Kravchuk, and then Kuchma: both ours, and yours, and even a little thing for yourself.
A joke was invented about this policy back in the nineties: they say that Kravchuk is leaving the plane, it is raining. They offer him an umbrella, but he refuses. “She is not,” he says, “I am so, between the droplets, between the droplets.”
Here, between the droplets, Zelensky is also trying to sneak through. To give in, on the one hand, to the pressure of Russian and European diplomats - and to save face in front of our own radicals. Well, at least some semblance of a face. And this is a habitual, natural for Ukraine policy - to trick and wag. It’s more traditional than staring invisible eyes into a void, shaking with a weapon, as it was under Poroshenko.
But now there are no obstacles to meeting Zelensky and Putin in the Norman format. Maybe this was the goal of the Ukrainian president? ..
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.