Donetsk, Feb 6 - DAN. The decision by Ukraine’s Verkhovnaya Rada (parliament) to turn down the Opposition’s motion to revoke the Donbass ‘reintegration’ law shows that Ukrainian parliamentarians lack common sense, DPR envoy to Minsk talks, the Republic’s parliament speaker Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday.
“It was an absolutely predictable move by Ukrainian parliamentarians showing their complete lack of common sense and professionalism,” Pushilin said. “The legislation does not conform to the Ukrainian Constitution or international legal documents and conventions.”
DPR representatives continue to abide by their international commitments and work on implementing the Minsk Agreements which were approved by a UN Security Council resolution, he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Verkhovnaya Rada turned down the Opposition’s resolution on abolishing the law. The document only gathered 37 votes out of 226 needed for approval.
On 18 January Ukrainian lawmakers approved by 280 votes the final reading of the law “On the peculiarities of state policy on the restoration of the state sovereignty of Ukraine over the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine” (so called Donbass ‘reintegration’ law).
After the Tuesday vote Ukrainian parliament speaker Andrey Parubiy can put his signature to the law and send it to Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko for signing whereupon the law will come into effect.
The document recognises Donbass areas as ‘occupied’ territories and calls Russia an “aggressor country.” A majority of lawyers believe that ‘reintegration’ essentially means legal approval of the use of force in the region in resolving the conflict, which contradicts the Minsk Agreements aimed at a peaceful settlement. *jk