Two years ago, on October 6, 2017, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed a law that named Russia as an aggressor state pursuant to international conventions and enabled the armed forces to better defend the nation’s sovereign territory.
Previously, the war was deemed by law as an “anti-terrorist operation” (ATO) that was de jure supposed to be led by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). And that actually was the case in the early stages of Moscow’s covert invasion of Ukraine in April 2014, when Ukraine’s government lost control of numerous cities and towns in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
The new law “catches up with reality on the ground,” said a note to investors by Kyiv-based Dragon Capital.
The law also deems areas not controlled by Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas as “temporarily occupied,” like a similar law currently in force regarding the Ukrainian territory of Crimea that was annexed by Moscow in 2014, following a sham referendum held on the peninsula in the presence of disguised Russian armed forces.
“The law also gives more leeway for the president to enact martial law in the non-government-controlled areas of the Donbas,” said Mariya Zolkina, political analyst for Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. “It changes the principles of the institutional [and] structural leadership on this territory.”
The law also legally solidifies Ukraine’s position to absolve itself of “what happens to its citizens in the occupied Donbas, whether financially, on a human or civil rights level… it places the onus” on the occupiers, Ms. Zolkina said.
President Petro Poroshenko said the law “further strengthens the use of the armed forces and expands their reach in the [war] region. This reinforces arguments for giving Ukraine defensive weapons… [but it also] emphasizes a peaceful, political and diplomatic path” to reaching peace.
Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted that the law identifies Russia as the “aggressor” and that this was “unacceptable for Russia.”
Controversially, the law also allowed more self-rule for the Luhansk and Donetsk occupied areas, with local councils appointing or electing judges and prosecutors to local courts and other law enforcement agencies. Local elections, however, could take place only once the Donbas war zone was “demilitarized” as per the Minsk agreements.
Other stipulations included that political parties must be allowed to run for local elections, media access must be free and international monitors must observe the voting process. The financing of the elections was also part of the law.
“This law,” Ms. Zolkina said, “is more for the international audience. “It provides an additional argument for extending sanctions toward Russia [by the West].”
“‘Special status’ extension shows Ukraine [is] taking tough steps for peace,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy for the Donbas war peace process, Kurt Volker tweeted on October 6. “[I] hope Russia now acts to make peace – time to end conflict.”
This extension was welcomed by Germany and France, two of the Normandy format negotiators, along with Ukraine and Russia, working toward implementation of the Minsk agreements.
Source: “Kyiv moves to label Russia as aggressor in Donbas war,” by Mark Raczkiewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 15, 2017.