Rada may vote on Donbas reintegration in December, MP says

Ukraine’s parliament may vote in December to approve
the bill to reintegrate Donbas in the second reading, said on Nov. 14 Ivan
Vinnyk, an MP of the Poroshenko Bloc. His parliamentary committee is still
amending the bill to include “measures to ensure the security and territorial
integrity (of Ukraine), while preserving democratic procedures provided by the
Constitution.” These measures – which include evacuations and resettlements –
could violate the constitutional rights of citizens residing on those territories
where they are applied. Therefore, the legislation needs to address who has the
authority to carry out such measures, to what extent they can be applied and in
what time periods, Vinnyk said. The legislation still needs to address how to
combat Russia’s hybrid war without a declaration of war or state of emergency,
he said.

More than 650 amendments were submitted to the bill on
reintegrating Donbas after it was approved by parliament in the first reading
in early October. The parliamentary committee on national security rejected
Vinnyk’s amendment to break diplomatic relations with Moscow, which was opposed
by President Poroshenko. The committee did include amendments that legally
codify the Russian occupation of Crimea as beginning on Feb. 20, 2014, as well
as the conditions of the Minsk Accords.

Zenon Zawada: Many points
of the legislation are opposed by civic activists, who are primarily concerned
with violations of individual rights, and nationalists, who are concerned with
measures that give legal recognition and protection to the Donbas separatist
leaders. However, it seems like the president will have enough votes to get the
second reading approved.

The key questions at this point are whether the
nationalists will resort to violent opposition to the legislation, as they had
in the past. And the other question is whether the tent city protest currently
outside the parliament will lend its support to opponents of the legislation.
We see the potential risk for a violent clash at parliament that could escalate
into a protracted conflict.