The curve along which the Ukrainian political discourse is moving is moving farther and farther from all the agreements on a peaceful settlement reached in previous years.

Now it has come to the Steinmeier formula, which has been repeatedly approved and endorsed by all parties since 2015.

The formula is a mechanism for the implementation of the second Minsk agreement.

In short, the plan proposed by the ex-German Foreign Minister and now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in 2015 assumed that:

- the law on special status comes into force immediately after the completion of early elections in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions on a temporary basis.

Voting will be conducted in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and a special law governing the electoral process;

- after the elections are recognized as complying with democratic principles and the Constitution of Ukraine, according to the report of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE / ODIHR), the law acquires legal force and is introduced on a permanent basis;

- Before the elections, combatants must be granted amnesty.

A year ago, at the Normandy Four summit in Paris, all parties signed a joint nine-point communiqué.

It also included the Steinmeier formula.

Ukraine undertook to include it in the adopted, but not valid law on the special status of CADLO.

However, almost immediately, President Volodymyr Zelensky withdrew his signature.

At the final press conference, he said that he and Vladimir Putin have different approaches to the issue of transferring the Russian-Ukrainian border to Kiev's control.

Subsequently, trying to calm down his opponents, who were holding protests throughout Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian state said that agreeing on the Steinmeier formula was a purely technical moment necessary for the next meeting in the Normandy format.

Thus, the essence of the document was completely emasculated.

But formally, Zelensky did not refuse him, and during the next consideration of the bill on the extension of the law on special status, the formula should have been included in it.

Today the Verkhovna Rada adopted the bill without making any changes to it.

On the eve of the Parliament Speaker Dmitry Razumkov absolutely unequivocally stated that the formula has no place in Ukrainian legislation: “No, nothing will be added there, the draft law has been registered, no one will change it.

The only question that has been changing for many years now, and, unfortunately, this is changing the year: first from 2019 to 2020, now from 2020 to 2021, and I hope that there will not be 2022.

But more additional positions will not be added to this bill ”.

What does it mean?

The law on special status, approved but not enacted, was extended until the end of the year, but this is a purely formal decision.

Its adoption has nothing to do with the implementation of the Minsk agreements, since there is no real mechanism for its implementation.

The formula offered concrete steps that could move the situation from the dead center where it froze.

The final rejection of it is the final chord at the funeral of the peace process.

The current ruling team has put the final point.

If under Petro Poroshenko, the tactic was used: "Explain to us how to do this, and we will gladly do everything," then under Zelensky, Kiev, through the lips of various politicians and officials, starting with the president, directly announced that under no circumstances did he intend implement the Minsk agreements in the form in which they were approved and signed.

Despite this, the Minsk platform and negotiations within the framework of the trilateral contact group still remain important elements of the relative stability of the current ceasefire, which has been going on for several months.

There is only one alternative to negotiations.

This is war.

This scenario does not suit anyone today.

Zelensky, who promised peace to his voters, clearly does not want a resumption of hostilities, and other members of the Normandy Four also insist on their complete cessation.

That is why, not intending to do anything, the Ukrainian delegation will continue to work in Minsk, making from time to time statements about the need to revise the Minsk Agreements.

The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.