Federalization advocates remain active in Ukraine

A man was sentenced to five years imprisonment on Feb. 4 for attempting to bribe an official with the Lviv Regional Council with UAH 50,000 in exchange for submitting for review an appeal to Kyiv to grant the Lviv region special economic status, the press service of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Lviv region reported. “Such appeals are a part of the hybrid aggression against Ukraine and are referred to as ‘quiet federalization’,” the statement said.

Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the political council of the Opposition Platform For Life party, held a meeting on Jan. 29 with members of the German Bundestag in Berlin to discuss his initiative for an interparlimentary dialogue began the countries of the Normandy Format, namely France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. The meeting was largely attended by members of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), which supports Russian President Putin’s policies in Ukraine. Widely acknowledged as Putin’s representative in Ukraine, Medvedchuk has long advocated federalization for the state structure.

Zenon Zawada: These incidents indicate that Russian agents are working actively to promote the idea of federalization in Ukraine, rather openly and brazenly. Russia’s ongoing demand to amend the Ukrainian Constitution to allow for special status of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – as part of the Minsk Accords – is widely considered to be the de facto federalization of Ukraine, and harshly opposed by the pro-Western opposition that wants to keep the unitary state. But the Zelensky team indicated it will consider offering this concession in order to the end warfare in Donbas.