President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky during the meeting of the “Norman Four” will propose creating a “municipal guard” in Lugansk and Donetsk regions, which will include equal proportions of the Ukrainian National Guard, representatives of the OSCE and the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. About this to the Ukrainian edition of Espreso.tv said Eugene Serdyuk - one of the participants in the meeting Zelensky with activists who took part in the events of "Euromaidan" in 2014.

At the same time, according to Serdyuk, Zelensky explained that this is only “one of the ideas” that he plans to present at the summit in the Norman format. The President of Ukraine did not specify whether the patrols of the “municipal guard” would consist of three people (one from each designated party) or distributed proportionally with a larger number of participants.

The Ukrainian leader emphasized that the representatives of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR should be recruited into such patrols exclusively from among those who “did not shoot, did not kill”.

As noted by Serdyuk, Zelensky also said that "he is not going to make concessions" to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and added, "that it is better to come from the summit with nothing than to betray the interests of Ukraine."

The Kremlin reported that they had learned from media reports about the proposed proposal to create a “municipal guard”, and urged them to wait for a substantive discussion of all issues directly during the meeting.

“Together with you, we learned from media reports. Therefore, we do not consider commenting possible now. It will be Monday (December 9, the day of the summit of the "Norman Four." - RT ). There will be a meeting of the Quartet. There will be substantive and professional discussion. According to the results, it will be possible to say something, ”said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov during a conversation with reporters.

Answer Donbass

Zelensky’s proposal was appreciated in the Donbass. So, the head of the self-proclaimed DPR Denis Pushilin said that the republic’s structures are coping with law enforcement on their territory and do not need the advice of the Ukrainian president.

  • November 9, 2019. A representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic launches a signal rocket as a sign of readiness to withdraw DPR People’s Police units from a site near the village of Petrovskoye
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  • © Sergey Averin

“On the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic, law enforcement agencies fully work, all human rights and freedoms are respected and protected. We cope with our obligations to ensure order in the state and do not need the instructions of a person who, with the connivance of Ukraine, is now shooting children in the center of the capital, reigning on an unprecedented scale revelry of uncontrolled gangs and ultra-radical groups, ”the statement posted on the official website says. heads of an unrecognized republic.

In his statement, Pushilin advised Vladimir Zelensky to take care of maintaining order in Ukraine and emphasized that representatives of the Ukrainian National Guard would not be allowed into the Donbass.

“Some“ municipal guards ”need to be created in Kiev, from where, in fact, the conflict began in the Donbass in 2014. As for the units of the People’s Militia, according to a set of measures, they should be created only by decision of the local councils of Donbass, and we won’t allow any National Guard to our lands, ”Pushilin said, adding that Zelensky’s proposals are“ another attempt to substitute the essence of the Minsk agreements ".

Deputy Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts of RUDN University Nikita Danyuk in an interview with RT noted that the proposed proposal by the Ukrainian side to establish a “municipal guard” contradicts the Minsk agreements and indicates that Kiev is looking for excuses for refusing to fulfill the political part of the agreements.

“Only after the local elections it will be possible to say that Ukraine can regain control over the border and, accordingly, further try to integrate the republics of the DPR and LPR into its political legal space,” the expert explained.

The political scientist noted that Zelensky makes such proposals in order to reduce tension before the upcoming opposition statement, which on December 8, on the eve of the summit, plans to gather its supporters on the Kiev Maidan. On December 5, a joint statement of the European Solidarity, Batkivshchyna and Golos parties was published on Facebook, in which they urged Ukrainians to take part in the protest in order to prevent “compromises” in the upcoming negotiations.

“In fact, they want the president of Ukraine to be driven into a corner, within which he will continue the policy of Petro Poroshenko,” said Danyuk.

Bogdan Bezpalko, an expert of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, agrees with this assessment of what is happening.

“I regard this proposal from the Ukrainian side as another chatter. The Minsk agreements do not mention the “municipal guard”, which would combine the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, the OSCE and the Donbass police. The meeting in the Norman format is designed to resolve the situation in Ukraine. If Zelensky is ready to refuse to end the conflict for the sake of a group of right-wing radicals, then he stands for the continuation of the civil war. Accordingly, it is not much different from Poroshenko, ”the political analyst emphasized in an interview with RT.

The road to the Norman Summit

Recall that on December 9 in Paris the first meeting in the Norman format will take place at the level of the heads of four states: Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine. In February 2015, the leaders of the Quartet agreed on a set of measures to implement the Minsk Agreements - a document that spelled out steps to resolve the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

  • October 19, 2016. Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (center), French President Francois Hollande (left) and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (right) during a meeting of leaders of the Norman Four countries in Berlin
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  • © Mikhail Palinchak

After agreeing on this set of measures (also sometimes referred to as the Second Minsk Agreement), all four meetings were devoted to its implementation.

However, the Ukrainian authorities, under the leadership of the administration of Petro Poroshenko, actually froze their implementation, which made holding new meetings pointless. The latest summit of the Heads of State of the “Norman Four” in full force took place in October 2016 in Berlin.

Moscow has repeatedly pointed out that the implementation of the Minsk Agreements is the only way to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and also drew the attention of the participants in the dialogue to the fact that the implementation of the agreements is consistently sabotaged by Kiev.

Regarding the upcoming meeting on December 9, the Kremlin noted that they did not expect a breakthrough in Russian-Ukrainian relations as a result of the summit, but Moscow remained cautiously optimistic. This was announced on December 6 by Dmitry Peskov.

“If you say“ a breakthrough in Russian-Ukrainian relations, ”then yes, there is very cautious, very restrained optimism,” Peskov quotes Interfax.

Bogdan Bezpalko also believes that a breakthrough in the negotiations should not be expected, and the most likely outcome of the Paris summit is an agreement on the next meeting.

“Zelensky continues to invent new schemes that do not contribute to the settlement, because he either does not want or cannot fulfill the Minsk agreements and Steinmeier’s formula. In order to resolve the situation in the Donbass, Zelensky had all the possibilities. However, he did not even come to the territory of the DPR and LPR, where hopes were pinned on him, ”the political scientist emphasized.

In turn, Nikita Danyuk noted that the real steps to resolve the situation will be automatically presented by Zelensky’s opponents inside Ukraine as a betrayal.

“In this case, there will be an attempt, if not to displace it with the help of the next Maidan, then to discredit it as much as possible, making it a traitor to Ukraine. In these conditions, he must constantly make references, some signals to these forces, in order to demonstrate that he is not a traitor, ”the expert noted.

Therefore, Zelensky in such conditions before the summit will make mixed statements.

“He will talk about peace, but at the same time he will repeat the rhetoric that is now an integral part of the political space in Ukraine, that Russia is an aggressor, an occupier who poses a threat to the security not only of Kiev, but of the whole of Europe. If Zelensky, following the meeting, does not give up this rhetoric, then he, as a politician, who had hopes in the context of resolving the situation in southeastern Ukraine, will cease to exist, first of all for the residents of Donbass. In these conditions, a meeting in the Norman format is important for him not only in the context of Ukraine’s foreign policy towards Russia, but also in the context of his political future within the country, ”the political scientist explained.

At the same time, in order to really achieve a breakthrough in resolving the conflict, it is enough to simply implement the Minsk agreements, Nikita Danyuk emphasized.

“There is already a roadmap within the framework of which it is possible to gradually restore peace, and then people's trust. But Zelensky is trying to ignore every point of the agreement. In addition, within the framework of the Ukrainian establishment there is no single clear position regarding the scenarios. This demonstrates that Zelensky, despite his statements that he is preparing for the Normandy format, does not strategically understand what to do and acts situationally, ”the expert concluded.