Honorable colleagues,
I welcome that PACE in its draft resolution “The functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine” has remind to everyone about the Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea.
It is also an honor that PACE acknowledges the efforts of Ukrainian government directed towards implementation of so badly needed reforms.
The democratic institutions shall be the core subject of analysis and scrutiny, and let me assure you that both opinion and recommendations of PACE are highly appreciated in this regard.
However, it is hard to accept that PACE instrumentalizes resolution in order to execute pressure on Ukraine regarding implementation of Minsk.
From the very beginning Minsk was not a magic pill to resolve Ukraine-Russia war, and the best argument for it is that its conditions do not even mention occupied Crimea.
Without de-occupation of Crimea and re-establishing the sovereignty of Ukrainian people there, any try to end the war would be nothing more than an attempt of appeasement of Russian Federation or even worse, an attempt to negotiate “a deal” with the aggressor at the expense of Ukrainians` lives and victims of this war.
The situation in Crimea with protection of human rights is worsen each day, bright example continued repressions on this territories: on November 9, 2016 in Sevastopol, the Russian FSB arrested 3 citizens of Ukraine, Dmytro Shtyblikov, Oleksiy Bessarabov, Volodymir Dudka, who were accused without reason on preparing diversions. All this people were part of the well-known in Ukraine and abroad think tank "Nomos", with strong anti-Russian aggression position.
Moreover, the conditions of ceasefire are constantly violated by the Russian side, which is another argument that Russian Federation is not trustworthy partner and that its actions threaten international security.
What concerns constitutional reform, namely decentralization reform, there're 2 different part: the framework of decentralization and special status for Donbass territories. And there's no consensus in the society about this special status and the majority of the parliamentarians don't support this amendment.
Such discussion could only begin when Ukraine executes control over its entire territory and when temporarily occupied territories are de-occupied and re-integrated. Otherwise so-called “decentralization chapter” will legalize occupation and occupants, who indeed execute power and control these territories.
Implementing such a reform would create an illusion of restored state borders of Ukraine and regained control over the occupied territories, but in reality it would put Ukraine in even worse danger than it currently faces, because occupants and their supporters would gain constitutionally guaranteed right to destroy Ukrainian integrity.Therefore i cannot support the adoption of this Draft Resolution in the suggested version.
