Donetsk, Jan 22 - DAN. Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko’s refusal to reform the government system or provide a special status to Donbass shows Kiev’s disregard for the Minsk Agreements, Donetsk People’s Republic parliamentarian, chairman of the committee on foreign policy, international relations and information policy and technology Vladislav Berdichevskiy told the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s RIA Novosti reported that Poroshenko, speaking on the occasion of Ukraine’s Unity Day, announced that there would never be federations or “special statuses” in the country.

“Poroshenko has an inappropriately bad memory. Let’s remind him that Minsk-2 was signed under the threat of complete destruction of 8,000 Ukrainian troops in the Debaltsevo area, when Francois Hollande (French President from 2012 till 2017) and (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel quickly flew to Moscow to beg Russian President Vladimir Putin to influence the DPR and LPR in order to prevent it,” Berdichevskiy said.

Poroshenko has never fulfilled a single article spelled out in the Minsk Agreements, and has been using the situation all this time to reinforce the army, gain full control of the mass media, and eliminate those who disagreed with Kiev’s policy, he said.

“Poroshenko has repeatedly made it clear that Ukraine would not fulfil any of its commitments, and is consistently pursuing this strategic line. His latest statements on the issue are a new proof of Kiev’s inability to negotiate,” Berdichevskiy said.

The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements envisions a Constitutional reform in Ukraine which has to result in deep decentralisation.

In October 2014, Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko signed the law on special order of local self governance in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions which granted them special status for three years (Minsk-2 requires indefinite status for the region). In practice however, the law was never applied. Contrary to the Minsk Agreements and without coordinating his move with the Donbass Republics, Poroshenko amended the law in March 2015 which actually blocked its operation.*jk