Ukraine parliament approves Donbas reintegration bill

Ukraine’s parliament approved on Jan. 18 the second reading
of the Donbas reintegration bill that legally establishes Russia’s military
aggression against Ukraine and significantly enhances the president’s authority
to respond militarily. 280 MPs voted in favor with five of six factions
offering majority support, with the Russian-oriented Opposition Bloc being
opposed. The legislation will be signed by President Petro Poroshenko, who led
the effort to get it approved this week. The bill had undergone significant
amending since it was approved in the first reading in October with deep
involvement of U.S. and EU officials, as well as Ukrainian MPs, who reviewed
675 amendments just this week. Few people outside of parliament have yet to
read the final draft.

 

Specifically, the legislation establishes the Russian
role in the current occupation of certain territories of the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions on Ukraine’s eastern edge. It provides a legal mechanism to
replace the framework of the current Anti-Terrorist Operation – which is
identified as inadequate in responding to the defense needs of the Ukrainian
state – with a state of emergency, martial law or “the start of implementation
of measures” to hold off or evict the Russian-backed aggression militarily.
Such vague wording drew criticism that the president could apply wartime
measures without any official declaration. The Prosecutor General, who works
closely with the president, also gains expanded authority. The legislation also
gives the Joint Chiefs of Staff the authority to establish a headquarters in
the war zone with wide authority to direct the Armed Forces.

 

Among the legislation’s critics, who did not offer
their vote in support, were Ukraine’s pro-Western neo-liberals, who argued that
the president and a wide range of unclearly defined law enforcement officials
gain unprecedented and excessive authority that is typically reserved for an
official declaration of war. Some went so far as to say it imposes martial law
conditions without a declaration. Nationalists also opposed the legislation,
arguing that it proposes no mechanism for returning the territory under
Ukrainian control and doesn’t include any measures to force Russia’s
capitulation, such as a total trade blockade or an end to diplomatic relations.

 

Ukraine’s Russia-aligned figures offered the fiercest
criticism, arguing that the legislation ends any hope for a peaceful resolution
to the conflict. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the head of the self-declared Donetsk
People’s Republic, said the legislation violates the Minsk Accords by giving
free reign to Ukraine’s military forces. “Everything that they couldn’t do
earlier can be done on a legal basis,” he said, as reported by the
pravda.com.ua news site. “Ukraine has decided to wage war and created a legal
platform for this.” Viktor Medvedchuk, widely viewed as Vladimir Putin’s
spokesman in Ukraine, said the legislation is “an assortment of delusional
hopes of a violent return of the territories. The very territory, but not its
people.” It’s a conscious effort to ruin the peace talks, he said. The U.S. and
the EU had yet to respond to the legislation’s approval the same day, possibly
because its officials had not yet seen the final version.

 

Zenon Zawada: The general
sense is that the legislation is a positive step forward in enhancing Ukraine’s
ability to defend against Russia’s hybrid war. At the same time, it is widely
recognized as a politicized document that swelled far beyond what it originally
intended to be in order to accommodate the various political posturing in
parliament. This is possibly the reason why the U.S. and EU were satisfied
enough to not interfere with its approval since its military and geopolitical
objectives had been watered down. The lack of a reaction from U.S. or EU
officials on the same day leads us to believe that Poroshenko pursued the
legislation’s approval without their direct endorsement, though these
governments were certainly involved in the consultations to amend the
legislation.

 

The legislation was approved the same day that
parliament decided not to include in its agenda the president’s widely
criticized bill to create the anti-corruption court. It has been a far bigger
priority for IFIs, who had not even mentioned the Donbas reintegration bill as
a requirement. Its approval served as a convenient smokescreen, whether
intended or not, to delay the legislation in order to conduct further
negotiations with an IMF deal on a compromise deal that would involve natural
gas price hikes.

 

The bill’s sponsors managed to appease those who had
been fervently opposed to the legislation and were ready to use violence,
particularly the nationalists, by dropping any mention of the Minsk Accords and
the peace talks there, which would have given them legal recognition. The
position of the nationalists and other groups is that the entire Minsk peace
process is a betrayal of Ukrainian national interests.

 

It’s also worth noting that President Poroshenko is
dramatically enhancing his authority just as his re-election campaign is about
to formally launch. This indicates that he is confident he will gain
re-election. Otherwise, he would be handing such enhanced authority to his
long-time political nemesis, Yulia Tymoshenko, who would have the authority to
do him much harm.

 

The fear of losing power has already motivated the
president to apply questionable measures against his opponents, such as
pressuring Tymoshenko’s campaign and political party, and may cause him to
engage in vote fraud or resist a peaceful transition after the elections, which
are scheduled for March 2019.