'There is no surrender in it': Ukraine and Russia signed a peace plan for Donbass

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced the approval of the “Steinmeier formula”. What was agreed upon and what awaits Ukraine in the future, writes with the BBC.

Photo: Official website of the President of Ukraine

Darka Olifer, press secretary of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s representative in the trilateral contact group, published a letter on Facebook explaining the “Steinmeier formula.”

Leonid Kuchma’s letter to OSCE Special Representative Martin Sajdik states that Ukraine “accepts the text of the formula” that will be included in the law “On a special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions” and which was agreed on September 11 by diplomats from Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia.

“The law comes into force at 20:00 local time on the day of voting in early local elections in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are appointed and conducted in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine and the special Law of Ukraine, which regulates early local elections in the above-mentioned areas” , - noted in the “formula”.

It is noted that the law “on a special procedure” will be in force on a temporary basis at least until the publication of the report of the OSCE mission regarding the compliance of local elections in uncontrolled areas with democratic standards and Ukrainian legislation, and if such elections are recognized, it will continue to be in force in the future.

On October 1, President Zelensky announced the agreement on the so-called “Steinmeier formula.”

According to him, it should be implemented in the new law on special status; there is no “capitulation” in it.

Separatist position

Separatist leaders Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik today issued a joint statement stating that Ukraine will not gain control over the border, and they will determine the election dates in regions not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities.

“We urge Mr. Zelensky not to dictate terms to us. When he says that elections in Donbass will be held only after Ukraine gains control of the border, he does not understand that it is not for him to decide when elections will be held, but for us,” the message says.

“The Kiev authorities will not gain any control over the border,” note the separatist leaders.

Pushilin and Pasechnik note that on October 1, Ukraine signed the “Steinmeier formula,” guaranteeing Donbass a special status.

“Thus, she recognizes the special right of the people of Donbass to independently determine their destiny,” the separatists believe.

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In their joint statement, Pushilin and Pasechnik argue that the adoption of the formula means recognizing the right of the separatists to decide what the economy, the judiciary, the security forces in the territories not controlled by the Ukrainian government will be like, as well as “how we will integrate with Russia.”

Separatist leaders also require Zelensky to negotiate directly with them and coordinate changes to the law on special status.

“Otherwise, we will consider them a direct and flagrant violation of the Minsk agreements, and they will be legally null and void for us,” they claim.

Formula Harmonization

According to Zelensky, the “Steinmeier formula” is a “horror story” with which Ukrainians have been frightened for a long time, but in reality we are talking about “one or two sentences.”

“This is the approval of a temporary law on the special status of Donbass, which comes into effect on a permanent basis after the publication of the OSCE report that the elections were held according to democratic standards,” Zelensky explained.

“There are no elections at gunpoint and there cannot be. It’s clear that if we are talking about democratic elections, there cannot be people with machine guns,” the president added.

According to him, the formula should be implemented in the new law on special status, which will be developed in the near future - “in public discussion with society.”

“We will not cross a single line in this law, there will be no capitulation,” Zelensky assured.

For a long time, Moscow insisted on agreeing on the formula; without this, the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky in the Normandy Four format was called impossible.

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Russian media published a document that they call the “Steinmeier formula”, and which bears the signatures of the OSCE Special Representative Martin Sajdik, the representative of Ukraine in the Contact Group Leonid Kuchma, the representative of Russia in the Contact Group Boris Gryzlov, as well as representatives of the ORDLO Natalia Nikonorov and Vladislav Deinego.

This document specifies that “extraordinary local elections” should be held in uncontrolled areas in accordance with the “Constitution of Ukraine and a special law of Ukraine.”

But the chairman of the Rada Committee on Foreign Policy, deputy from the Servant of the People, Bohdan Yaremenko, said on Facebook that “nobody signed anything yesterday.”

“The representative of Ukraine in the TCG, Leonid Kuchma, informed the OSCE representative Martin Sajdik in writing that Ukraine was satisfied with the wording agreed upon by the advisers to the heads of state of the Normandy format in Minsk on September 1, 2019,” he noted.

According to him, we are talking about the features of the local elections in the ORDLO, all other issues remain the subject of negotiations.

“The results will be implemented not by changes in the Constitution, but by the laws of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (which gives society the opportunity to control what is happening),” the deputy notes.

“There are more questions than there were”

Former Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin, commenting on the president’s speech, noted that there were more questions regarding the “Steinmeier formula” than there were before.

“The Steinmeier formula makes no sense without it being built into an action plan, that is, a road map. There were more questions than there were. Society will demand answers to them. Those who do not solve the problem of the occupation of Donbass at the expense of Ukraine,” Klimkin said.

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“For everyone else, even our friends, this is a problem that needs to be solved. For us, it is a question of our existence as a united and united state,” adds the ex-minister.

The Golos party published a statement on its website in which it demands a closed meeting of the Council, during which Vladimir Zelensky must explain the details of agreeing on the Steinmeier formula.

The statement says that it is impossible to understand exactly what agreements were reached in Minsk with the announced information.

Controversial formula

Over the past weeks, the plan or formula of Franco Walter-Steinmeier, now the President of Germany, and before that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, has been the cause of heated debate among Ukrainian politicians, mainly through different interpretations of its content.

According to one version, the Steinmeier plan provides that after the OSCE recognizes the elections in Donbass as legitimate, it is proposed to amend the Constitution and consolidate the special status of Donbass. Only after this is it planned to withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory and establish Ukraine’s control over the border.

Critics of this scenario insisted that the security part of the Minsk agreements must be implemented first, and only then the political part. That is, the withdrawal of troops and control of the border should precede elections and discussion of the status of Donbass.

The former representative of Ukraine in the political subgroup at the Tripartite Contact Group (TCG) negotiations, Roman Bessmertny, published a document called “Implementation” of the Steinmeier formula “into Ukrainian legislation” - this is what was supposedly planned to be signed in Minsk.

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The document published by the Immortal refers mainly to the fact that the elections in Donbass should be recognized by the OSCE as held in accordance with international standards and Ukrainian legislation.

There is no mention of security policy regarding the Minsk Agreements, in particular, the withdrawal of troops, in a document circulated by Mr. Immortal.

The agreement on the “Steinmeier formula” could have happened as early as September 18, but on that day the formula was not agreed upon. Foreign Minister Vadim Prystaiko said this was due to a “technical misunderstanding.” In addition, the Ukrainian side expressed comments on the text of the document.

The press secretary of the representative of Ukraine in the TCG Leonid Kuchma, Darka Olifer, then stated that the implementation of the “Steinmeier formula” is possible only if the following conditions are met:

“A complete ceasefire, ensuring effective monitoring by the OSCE SMM throughout Ukraine; withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine of armed formations, foreign troops and military equipment, disengagement of forces and assets along the entire demarcation line, ensuring the work of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, Ukrainian political parties, media and foreign observers, establishing control over the section of the Russian-Ukrainian border not controlled by Ukraine and implementing other points provided for by Ukrainian and international legislation and the Minsk agreements,” Olifer wrote.

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