Ukraine will stick to the Minsk II peace agreement, even though Russia might launch a "full-scale" invasion in the eastern Donbas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said during an address to Parliament on June 4 almost a year after he came to power. He was inaugurated on June 7.
Poroshenko’s speech follows one of the toughest days for the Ukrainian army since the February Minsk agreement, losing five soldiers in the successful defense of Maryinka in Donetsk Oblast.
Poroshenko said the army successfully repelled the attack “of Russian soldiery” and had to use artillery to keep a town under Ukraine’s control. Poroshenko said they warned the European leaders that Minsk accords were violated.
“The military must be ready as much for a renewal of an offensive by the enemy in the Donbas as they are for a full-scale invasion along the whole length of the border with Russia. We must be truly ready for this,” Poroshenko says, adding that at least 9,000 Russian soldiers are being operating in the Russian-controlled area.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has put the nation on a war footing, although such a formal declaration has never been made.
Poroshenko said the government will spend at least 5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product on defense for the foreseeable future.
With the help of the volunteers and the Ministry of Defense, Ukraine now has at least 50,000 equipped Ukrainian fighters involved in the war, almost 10 times more than a year ago.
Totally, Ukraine’s army has at least 250,000 soldiers and the country has spent Hr 19.2 billion to modernize the equipment.
“We have the powers to defend our land,” the president said. “We’ve provided the minimum level of defense capability and liberated the bigger part of Donbas. We have stopped one of the strongest armies on the continent, because there are not miners and tractor drivers fighting against us, but Russian armed forces.”
Poroshenko also focused on key tasks for the Parliament to work on.
The decentralization and a “deoligarchization” campaign aimed at reducing the power and influence of Ukraine’s wealthiest businessmen would be a priority for Ukrainian leaders.
Poroshenko said they will focus on securing the country’s border, cleaning eastern Ukraine of Russian armament and troops before the elections will take place in Donbas.
“We are ready to restore all economic relations with the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk when Ukraine restores control over the border,” Poroshenko says.
As Ukraine could possibly benefit from visa-free travel with Europe in 2016, Poroshenko says they will keep working to meet the requirements on refugees, human trafficking, organized crime and corruption
Ukraine expects an EU assessment mission to visit the country in September to report on progress in meeting visa liberalization requirements.
While addressing the lawmakers in Verkhovna Rada, Poroshenko said he dismissed the Head of the State Migration Service Serhiy Radutny because the European partners were not happy with the agency’s work.
Speaking about reforms, Poroshenko said he’s happy with Interior Ministry’s Eka Zguladze, who was appointed deputy interior minister in December. Zguladze is working on a pilot project to create a brand new traffic police force staffed with new people. Poroshenko said the new road patrols in Kyiv will hit the streets in June.
“We have started passing bills regulating reforms of the Interior Ministry. They separate forcible functions from political ones and set up a municipal guard and new traffic police. And, by the way, I see such a person as Eka Zguladze as their future chief,” Poroshenko said.
However, Poroshenko is not happy with progress in fighting corruption.
Poroshenko also says the country will do everything to become a member of NATO even though not all the European partners support Ukraine’s aspirations. Most Ukrainians want to join the military alliance.
Poroshenko said he’s not happy with with his own work.
“Whether I’m satisfied with the work of the government? I’m not. Neither with my work and the work of the Parliament. But most importantly – the people are not happy with all of us.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
