Western Ukraine councils declare opposition to Donbas special status

The deputies of the Lviv Regional Council and Ternopil City Council voted on Jan. 26 to submit appeals to Ukraine’s parliament declaring their opposition to a constitutional amendment that would set the foundation for the special status of the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions. “In order to defend the interests of Ukraine and Ukrainians, we call for approving the historic decision of not voting in any instance for the constitutional amendments regarding the special status of Donbas, no matter what it’s called,” stated the Lviv Regional Council’s appeal, as reported by the UNIAN news agency. The amendment would legal occupiers on Ukrainian land, the appeal said. The Ternopil City Council appeal stated that the special status would legalize terrorist groups.

Zenon Zawada: What’s significant about these appeals is that these councils represent western Ukraine, which is the nation’s most pro-EU, pro-NATO region. So we have the most pro-Western Ukrainians opposing the EU’s support for establishing the Donbas special status, as required by the Minsk accords, which speaks to the low prospect of them being fulfilled. As we’ve consistently stated, any attempt to hold elections in occupied Donbas and establish the special status, the term that refers to de facto autonomy, has the potential to create enough opposition to collapse the current government and force early parliamentary elections. That would make fulfilling the Minsk accords even more unlikely, with populists and nationalists likely to make big gains.