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KIEV, February 20 President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on Tuesday signed the law on the reintegration of Donbass, in which the Russian Federation is called an "aggressor". For the law to come into force, the document should be published in the official publication - the newspaper Golos Ukrainy.

The head of the Ukrainian state instructed the siloviki to prepare proposals on changing the format of the operation in the region, as well as to determine the head of the united forces, who will assume the leadership of this operation.

The authorities of Ukraine in April 2014 launched a military operation against self-proclaimed LNR and the People's Democratic Republic of Ukraine, which declared independence after a coup d'etat in Ukraine in February 2014. This operation in Kiev was called "anti-terrorist". The law on the reintegration of Donbass presupposes the replacement of the "antiterrorist" operation with a military one. The law gives the president the right to use armed forces in the region in peacetime to implement measures to ensure the sovereignty of the country. This will legitimize the use of the army in the east without declaring war.

On January 18, the Parliament of Ukraine passed a law on the reintegration of Donbass, in which the Russian Federation was called an "aggressor", and the uncontrolled territories of Donbass were recognized as "occupied." The boundaries and list of "temporarily occupied" settlements in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions will be determined by the President of Ukraine on the proposal of the Ministry of Defense and on the basis of the proposals of the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Kiev previously repeatedly accused Moscow of interfering in the affairs of Ukraine. Russia denies this and calls such accusations unacceptable. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not a side of the intra-Ukrainian conflict and is interested in Ukraine's overcoming the political and economic crisis.

Do not violate the "Minsk-2"

Poroshenko signed the bill during a cabinet meeting in the presence of Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andrey Parubiy, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Chief of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin.

Before signing the document, the President of Ukraine stated that the law does not contradict the Minsk agreements on settlement in the Donbass.

"This law does not violate any international obligations of Ukraine, including Minsk agreements," Poroshenko said. He added that this document "will provide a legal mechanism for the political and diplomatic return of this region" under the control of Kiev.

At the same time, Poroshenko said that after signing the law Kiev will remain faithful to the idea of ​​a peaceful settlement of the conflict in the region.

"Signing this law, I would like to note that Ukraine remains committed to a peaceful solution to the problem of the liberation of the occupied territories, which is confirmed by our determined struggle for the deployment of a classic UN peacekeeping mission that could provide a security component for the restoration of sovereignty," Poroshenko said.

Change operation format

Poroshenko said that the operation that Kiev has been carrying out in the Donbass since the spring of 2014 to stabilize the situation in the region has fulfilled its tasks.

"Undoubtedly, the antiterrorist operation played an extremely important role in the first stage of repelling aggression, and more than two-thirds of the occupied Donbas was liberated in the format of the anti-terrorist operation," the president said.

At the same time, Poroshenko said that he expects promptly, by April 1, proposals from the head of the Defense Ministry to change the format of the operation in the Donbass and the candidacy of the commander of the joint forces in accordance with the law he signed.

"This law (on the reintegration of the Donbas - Ed.) Fixes our right to self-defense in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter, I am confident that under the current conditions the leading role for suppressing aggression rests on the shoulders of the armed forces of Ukraine.Therefore Stepan Timofeevich (Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak - Ed.), Viktor Nikolayevich (head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko - editor), I will have an assignment, I look forward to the relevant proposals on changing the format to implement this law (on reintegration of Donbass - Ed.), twist my candidacy commander of the combined forces, "- Poroshenko said.

He also instructed to submit proposals for the provision of a joint operational headquarters, a strategic plan for the use of the armed forces and other components of defense. He instructed to prepare these proposals also before April 1, which will be fixed by presidential decree.

The rule about the "aggressor country" remains

Consideration of the bill in the Ukrainian parliament was held in a relaxed atmosphere. Despite the large number of comments to the document, it was supported by deputies from all factions of the parliament, with the exception of the "Opposition block", as a result, the document gained 280 votes.

According to the law, the uncontrolled territories of Donbass in Kiev are recognized as "occupied", and the governance structures of unrecognized republics are "occupation administrations".

The law gives the president the right to use armed forces in the region in peacetime to implement measures to ensure the sovereignty of the country. According to a number of deputies, this rule partially contradicts the provisions of the Constitution, which does not provide for such powers of the president. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are still taking part in the military operation in the Donbass, but Ukraine wants to regulate their application legally.

One of the controversial points of the document was the point on the exact date of the beginning of the "occupation of Donbass". Ultimately, the law did not specify this date, the document has only a reference rule to the "law on the Crimea," which states that the beginning of the "occupation" is February 20, 2014.

The edict about the breaking of diplomatic relations with Russia was withdrawn

During the consideration of amendments, a number of deputies tried to include in the final text of the law the norms that oblige the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to break diplomatic relations with Russia, and also to draft and submit for consideration to the Verkhovna Rada the bill on denunciation of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. These initiatives did not find the necessary support.

The text of the law mentions the Crimea. Ukraine still considers the Crimea its own, but temporarily occupied territory, despite the fact that it became the Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014, in which 96.77% of the voters of the Crimea and 95.6% of Sevastopol voted for the entry in the Russian Federation.

The law specifies that the order of moving persons and goods is established by the Cabinet. According to the document, Kiev does not recognize any documents issued in the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions and in the Crimea that are beyond its control, with the exception of birth and death certificates. The law also notes that Ukraine is not responsible for "illegal actions and decisions of Russia" on the territories of the Donbass that are not controlled by Kiev.

In its original form, the draft law made it possible to prosecute all those who worked in the People's Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of Germany, in particular teachers, doctors and even librarians. In the final version, this article will be stated in this edition: "Persons who participate in the armed aggression of the Russian Federation or are involved in the occupation administration of the Russian Federation are criminally liable for acts that violate the norms of international humanitarian law." That is, all civilians who do not commit war crimes and are not members of the authorities of the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of Poland can not be prosecuted.

The law that crosses out "Minsk"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier said that the law on the reintegration of the Donbass crosses the Minsk accords and justifies a forceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis.

"The law on reintegration, if approached from a legal point of view, crosses the Minsk accords." Minsk agreements that were approved unanimously by the Security Council in a resolution adopted a few days after the meeting of the four leaders of the "Norman format" in Minsk. Lavrov.

"I would like to reiterate that the only way to resolve the internal Ukrainian crisis and overcome the dividing lines in the society remains the complete and consistent implementation of the Minsk" Set of Measures "approved by the UN Security Council, the main obstacle in this direction is the Kiev" war party ", which decided to bury the Minsk agreement and goes against the extremists, announcing the blockade of the Donbass and adopting a law in the Verkhovna Rada that justifies the forceful solution of the intra-Ukrainian crisis, "he added.

The DNR also believes that the law on the reintegration of the Donbass is a document implying hostilities, it will push the region even further from Kiev.

"This is the law on the war, on trade, about anything, but there is no question of any reintegration of speech and can not be on those terms unacceptable for the residents of the republic, and by its actions and this law, Kiev continues to push the Donbass farther and farther," - the plenipotentiary representative of the self-proclaimed NDP in the contact group for the settlement of the conflict, Denis Pusilin.

This document was also criticized by Valery Lutkovskaya, the Verkhovna Rada authorized representative for human rights. In her opinion, some articles of the adopted law worsen the situation with respect for human rights in the zone of the military operation of the siloviki.

"In the text that I saw that was prepared for the second reading, there were really very tough articles that worsened the human rights situation in the specific area where the fighting was taking place," Lutkovskaya said.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has already recommended Ukraine to reconsider the adopted law on the reintegration of Donbass, so that it was based on the Minsk agreements.

Link: https://ria.ru/world/20180220/1515020563.html