"The same slogans and appeals": how Ukraine and the EU are trying to appoint the Russian Federation as a party to the conflict in Donbass

During a briefing following the 23rd Ukraine-EU summit, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Russia a party to the conflict in Donbass.

The event took place in Kiev on October 12, and was attended by Charles Michel, President of the European Council, and Ursula von der Leyen, Head of the European Commission.  

“Yesterday I had a conversation with Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel and President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron, and one of the key topics of the summit was the coordination of the steps of Ukraine and the EU to achieve peace in the east of our country.

Together with the EU, we are unanimous that responsibility for the lack of progress in a peaceful settlement in Donbass rests fully with the Russian Federation, which is undoubtedly a party to the conflict, which will be ... recorded in a joint statement, ”Zelensky said.

Such a statement is indeed contained in the joint statement of the EU and Ukraine, adopted at the end of the summit.

"We (the EU and Ukraine. -

) emphasized the importance of the full implementation of the measures agreed at the Normandy Four summit in Paris in December 2019, and the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements, and also stressed the responsibility of Russia as a party to the conflict," in the document.

• Participants of the Ukraine-EU summit

• © REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko

In a statement, the summit participants also called on Moscow "to immediately stop fomenting the conflict by providing financial and military assistance to the armed groups it supports and to withdraw Russian troops and military equipment located on the eastern border of Ukraine and on the Crimean peninsula."

“We remain deeply concerned about the presence of Russian troops and military equipment in non-government-controlled areas of Ukraine, as well as the unprecedented large-scale military build-up near the border with Ukraine and in the illegally annexed Ukrainian Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol,” the statement said.

At the same time, the work of Ukraine within the framework of the "Normandy format" and the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbass is called constructive in the document.

During a briefing following the summit, Zelenskiy also called on the EU to impose new sanctions for holding elections to the State Duma in Crimea and Donbass.

“Everyone who took part in organizing and holding elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the occupied Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine in Donbas should be included in the sanctions lists,” he said.

"Internal Ukrainian conflict"

According to experts, the statement of Zelensky and EU representatives that the Russian Federation is a party to the conflict is contrary to the facts.

In particular, there is not a word in the Minsk Agreements that Moscow is participating in the conflict in Donbass.

And this document was approved by the UN Security Council and is the main instrument for resolving the situation in the South-East of Ukraine.  

This has been repeatedly pointed out in the Russian leadership.

So, in April 2021, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said: “The issue of Donbass between Kiev and Moscow cannot be resolved, since Russia is not a party to this conflict.

But in any case, we need to look for common ground. "

A similar statement was made in September by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

She stressed that the Minsk agreements must be implemented by the participants in the armed confrontation - Kiev, Donetsk and Lugansk.

• Dmitry Peskov

• © Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation

At the same time, Russia, the DPR and LPR state that the only obstacle to the implementation of the Minsk agreements today is the position of Kiev.

In particular, Ukraine refuses to grant Donbass a special status and to amend the country's Constitution.

These measures are stipulated by the Minsk agreements.

In addition, the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly stated that the Minsk agreements need to be changed.

In particular, in Kiev they want to change the sequence of the implementation of the items on the return to the Ukrainian authorities of control over the border and the holding of elections in Donbass.

The document says that first it is necessary to hold a vote, and then resolve the border issue, but Kiev wants to do the opposite.

At the same time, officials in Ukraine regularly make statements indicating that Kiev does not intend to comply with the Minsk agreements.

So, in September 2021, the representative of the Kiev delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) and the adviser to the head of the presidential office, Oleksiy Arestovich, noted that Ukraine had taken off the “hook” of the Minsk agreements.

He called it a "breakthrough achievement."

As Dmitry Peskov summed up on September 26, the deadlock in the implementation of the Minsk agreements "is solely related to the position of Ukraine."

“Ukraine does not want to fulfill the Minsk agreements, Ukraine wants to replace the Minsk agreements with something else, without calling it in its own words.

And, besides this, he also does not want to fulfill, for example, the agreements that were reached in Paris (at the Normandy format summit in 2019 -

), "Peskov said.

"Duty" calls

According to analysts, Zelensky's calls and the content of the joint statement of Ukraine and the EU following the summit can be called “on duty”.

Similar rhetoric has been prevalent in Ukraine and Europe since the beginning of the conflict, political analysts say.

“The statement made by Zelensky is traditional.

He has made similar calls on several occasions.

Since the summer of 2014, they have been constantly declaring that it is Russia that they see as a party to the conflict.

Russia has since emphasized that it does not consider itself so.

There is nothing new, ”Oleg Nemensky, a leading researcher at the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, said in an interview with RT.

• Military in the conflict zone in Donbass

• RIA News

The expert notes that the EU has actually stopped looking for ways to resolve the conflict and by inertia supports Kiev's statements on this issue.

“The European Union believes that since Kiev declares something, it should be supported. The European partners have already become rather disillusioned with the very process of resolving the conflict, therefore they are formally trying to show their support for Ukraine, but at the same time they are not actually looking for a configuration that could change something. Such statements, of course, are not aimed at constructive dialogue, ”Nemensky said.

In turn, Vladimir Olenchenko, senior researcher at the Center for European Studies, IMEMO RAS, drew attention to Zelensky's call to impose new sanctions against the Russian Federation for holding elections in Crimea and for the participation of residents of Donbass in them.

According to him, such attacks can be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of another state, since Crimea is part of the Russian Federation, and residents of Donbass with Russian passports voted remotely or traveled to the Russian Federation for this, which does not contradict the law.

“From the point of view of international law, this is interference in the internal affairs of Russia.

In the case of Crimea, we are talking about a sovereign Russian territory.

How can a representative of another state, even if he holds the post of president, turn to another state with such demands? "

- said the analyst in an interview with RT.

According to Olenchenko, the call to withdraw Russian troops from Crimea and withdraw them from the border with Ukraine can also be called interference in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation.

“Those who make these calls understand that this is all empty.

They understand that this is interference in the internal affairs of Russia.

After all, Russian troops are there on their own territory.

There is also a game for the internal audience.

Zelenskiy and his party are losing credibility and popularity in Ukraine.

To remedy the situation, they try to play the Russian card.

This tendency exists in the EU, where some countries and politicians also often try to blame all their problems on an external enemy, ”the analyst said.

He also noted that in the foreign policy rhetoric of Ukraine, despite the change of presidents, nothing new has appeared in recent years.

According to him, this may indicate that official Kiev is at an impasse.

“Ukraine repeats the same old slogans and calls that were heard five years ago.

This testifies to the hopelessness, helplessness, and incompetence of the current Ukrainian leadership.

And it is regrettable that the EU leaders take a biased position on this issue, playing up to Ukraine and the Americans behind it.

The European Union does not seek to improve relations with the Russian Federation, although both sides are interested in this, ”the political scientist concluded.