“Sovereign and independent”: Duma pleads for recognition of separatist areas

“Sovereign and Independent”
Duma calls for recognition of separatist areas

It would be a violation of the Minsk Agreement: the Russian parliament is demanding official recognition of the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine. The final decision rests with President Putin.

The Russian parliament has voted in favor of official recognition of the independence of the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine. MPs voted in favor of a resolution with this request to President Vladimir Putin, Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said in the online service Telegram. The Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic should therefore be recognized as “sovereign and independent states”. Such a step would violate the Minsk agreement on the pacification of eastern Ukraine.

The Kremlin said that the State Duma reflects the will of the Russian people. But there is still no decision on the matter, emphasized a spokesman. In the separatist areas, the Duma decision was seen as a great success. “This is a long-awaited decision by the citizens of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia,” said Vladimir Antonov, who describes himself as the region’s deputy prime minister.

Ukraine warned Russia against such a move. She sees Luhansk and Donetsk as part of her national territory. “In the event of recognition, Russia will de facto and de jure withdraw from the Minsk agreements with all the side effects,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told journalists in Kiev.

Motion by communists and ruling party

In addition to the communists, the ruling party United Russia had also submitted a request to the Duma to recognize the regions as independent states. Several MPs argued that war had been raging there for eight years and that a solution was needed. The ultra-nationalist LDPR party also supported the move. The ruble is already the common currency there. Russia has naturalized hundreds of thousands of people and is involved in social services and the reconstruction of companies.

In 2014, pro-Russian separatists proclaimed “independent people’s republics” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. In the ensuing armed conflict with the Ukrainian army, more than 13,000 people have been killed to date. Ukraine and Western countries have long accused Russia of providing military support to the separatists. The Kremlin has always denied this.

The tensions in the conflict had increased massively in recent months due to a massive Russian troop deployment on the border with Ukraine. A Russian invasion of the neighboring country was feared. Russia denies any invasion plans, but says it feels “threatened” by Ukraine and the West.

Moscow and the separatists in eastern Ukraine also accuse Kiev of planning an offensive to recapture eastern Ukraine, which the Ukrainian government denies. In this context, there were also official considerations in Russia for the first time about supplying the separatists in eastern Ukraine with weapons.

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