Kyiv peace talks begin without eastern rebels

Round-table talks began in Kyiv on May 14 as a part of an initiative put forward by the OSCE. They were held in front of the international media. Correspondents said that while the talks were heated, the consensus was that Ukraine must remain united.

 

Those present included interim President Oleksandr Turchynov, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, governor of Donetsk region, MPs and former Ukrainian leaders. The interim president said Kyiv was prepared to listen and negotiate with pro-Russians rebels, but said they must lay down their arms first. “We will not yield to blackmail,” he said. “We are ready to listen to the people of the east but they must not shoot, loot or occupy government buildings.”

 

Alexander Yefremov, the leader of Party of Regions faction in the Ukrainian parliament, called on the government to stop the anti-terrorist operation in eastern Ukraine and expressed his concern on the fact that “no representative of Luhansk region was invited to the round table”. Yefremov was a governor of Luhansk region for many years. He failed to provide any list of “Luhansk representatives” when journalists asked him.

 

Representatives of separatists from eastern Ukraine, who apparently lack a single leader and agreed goals, were absent at the round table. Participants agreed to consider convening of a new session in Donetsk within a week.

 

The OSCE said Russian President Vladimir Putin supported this initiative. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov questioned whether presidential elections on May 25 should take place because Ukraine was on “the brink of civil war.” In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Lavrov said “there is a war, a real war” in the east and south of Ukraine. He also called for the inclusion of rebels in the crisis talks, saying they would only succeed if there was “equal participation of all regions”.

 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian media discussed the video statement of Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest person and core employer of people in eastern Ukraine, who was absent at the round table. Akhmetov declared that Donbass (territory of Donetsk and Luhansk regions) can be only happy as part of Ukraine. He also stressed that the pre-condition for the way out of the current crisis is “decentralization of power… when power makers are elected, not appointed; when local power takes responsibility”.  

 

Alexander Paraschiy: The round table looks like a beginning of a long discussion on how to solve the crisis in eastern Ukraine. But we do not believe such discussions will de-escalate the eastern regions. Firstly, unrests in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are fueled by Russian special forces, and they cannot calm down as a result of “dialogue” – violent groups of separatists are not going to discuss anything.

 

Secondly, now it is becoming clear that these unrests are supported by local oligarchs who are now openly demanding delegation of more power from Kyiv to regional authorities. By demanding this, they are clearly not thinking about the well-being of the people of Donbass, otherwise they would have done “decentralization of power” in 2010 when “their” president Viktor Yanukovych (who, by the way, had promised the decentralization in his election campaign) took a power in Ukraine. It is clear that people controlling authorities in Donbass just want to keep their power and preserve all inefficiencies and corruption schemes that were present before.

 

When Ukraine has received a chance to change itself for better, Donbass leaders are willing to remain where they are. For this reason, we believe the delegation of more power to Donbass, and preservation of the status quo there, will only harm this region and will lead to new escalations in the mid-term.