Having issued the decree on recognition of passports and other documents issued by the pseudo-authorities in the parts of Ukraine not under the control of the government, the Russian president has legally recognized the quasi-public groups and left the Minsk process, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said.
“This step by Kremlin completely destroys the Minsk process and is equal to Russia’s statement about an exit from that,” the NSDC press service quoted Turchynov as saying late on Feb. 18.
The Minsk process “envisages de-occupation of the east of Ukraine and its return to the legal framework of the country” and having signed this executive order, the Russian president “has legally recognized the quasi-public terrorist groups,” which “were used in the Russian occupation of a part of Donbas”, Turchynov said.
Iryna Gerashchenko, first deputy speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada and the country’s representative in the Trilateral Contact Group’s humanitarian subgroup, said, for her part, that the Russian decree is aimed at building a foundation for a frozen conflict in Donbas and at destabilization in Ukraine.
“This is not yet a recognition of the republics themselves, only that of their puny papers, but we should not be misled by all these words from Putin’s about its temporary nature until the political settlement etc. The purpose of this decree is destabilization of the Ukrainian situation, the first step toward nationalization and possible recognition…; laying the groundwork for a frozen conflict,” Gerashchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Feb. 18.
