Donetsk, Feb 18 - DAN. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s idea to adopt the law on filtering the population in Donbass contradicts the logic and meaning of the Minsk Agreements, Donetsk People’s Republic representative to the Contact Group talks, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said in comments to the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Avakov called for adopting a law on collaborators. It has to exempt from criminal prosecution the People’s Republics residents who performed “important social functions.”
“Ukrainian authorities are again trying to substitute their political commitments by completely reversing their meaning. Interior Minister Avakov’s initiative stating the intention to adopt a law on collaborators which envisions filtration of population and criminal prosecution of a significant portion is absolutely detached from reality,” Nikonorova said.
The initiative contradicts the logic and meaning of the UN Security Council resolution which endorsed the Minsk Agreements: under Article 5 of the Package of Measures dated February 12, 2015, Ukraine pledged to amnesty all the Donbass events participants. “To equal this law to the amnesty law is ultimate hypocrisy,” she said.
She said that Kiev’s calling upon international mediators to step up the work on political settlement was a waste of time, as Ukraine has not fully honoured a single commitment within the political package of the accords.*jk