Donetsk, Feb 21 – DAN. The enactment of Ukrainian law on Donbass 'reintegration' wipes out a possibility of peaceful settlement in the region, said DPR acting Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova.
"By signing the bill on 'reintegration' the president confirmed Kiev's commitment to a military solution to the conflict. Its enactment offsets a possibility of peaceful settlement as it directly prohibits fulfillment of some of the political articles of the Minsk Agreements and legalizes violence."
Nikonorova said the law came as an attempt to justify the use of regular army against Donbass civilians in the past and to launch large-scale military action in the future.
Earlier DPR envoy to the Minsk negotiations Denis Pushilin said that the bill will not save Ukraine's leaders from retribution for violence against their people.
On Tuesday, Petr Poroshenko signed the bill On the peculiarities of state policy on ensuring Ukraine's state sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Lugansk regions", the so-called Donbass reintegration law after the country's parliament had adopted it on January 18 with 280 voices.
The bill defines Donbass as an 'occupied territory' and Russia is recognized as an aggressor state. Lawyers agree that the 'reintegration' implied by the law is actually a legal permission to extensive use of force to settle the conflict in Donbass which is a direct violation of the Minsk Agreements aimed at a peaceful solution. *ot