Deputy Head Of Kiev's Delegation To Minsk Process Announced Bills On Donbas Transition

Deputy Head of Kiev's Delegation to Minsk Process Announced Bills on Donbas Transition

The first deputy chief of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov, on Friday announced the development of a package of bills about a transitional period for Donbas, which will include an amnesty procedure

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th September, 2020) The first deputy chief of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov, on Friday announced the development of a package of bills about a transitional period for Donbas, which will include an amnesty procedure.

"After a heated phase in any conflict, there always comes a period of transition. An important part of it is creation of transitional justice mechanisms. What is that? According to the UN principles, it is the right for truth and right for justice. It is compensation to victims of aggression, it is responsibility. We need a law on responsibility, we will have to define those who are collaborators, those who are criminals, and those who are hostages, those who are covered by an amnesty, and who is not under any circumstances and has to shoulder responsibility in full," Reznikov said during a question hour with the government.

The negotiator added that Kiev would not change the country's constitution to enshrine a special status of the region.

"During the last year's December summit of the Normandy Four leaders in Paris President [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] provided a clear understanding that there will be no changes in Ukraine's constitution regarding putting in it some sort of special status, it is out of the question. The president has also said on multiple occasions that the Minsk agreements are in need of changing. This is the position that we are defending within the Trilateral Contact Group," Reznikov said.

He emphasized that the region will need at least one generation, some 25 years, to be safely reintegrated into Ukraine without tearing it apart and creating new risks.

Reznikov also chided parliament for being reluctant to reconsider its decision on local elections that prohibited holding them in territories that are not under Kiev's direct control, thus undermining the Minsk process.

"Has it complicated the conduct of talks? Yes, it has. Have our opponents used it for [the purposes of ] manipulation? Yes, they have. Has it blocked the negotiations? Yes, it has been blocked to a great degree," Reznikov lamented.

Since April 2014, the Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation against the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Prospects for peace have been discussed in various formats, including during the meetings of the contact group in Minsk, which, since September 2014, has already adopted three documents regulating steps to de-escalate the conflict.