DOKUMENT: Minská dohoda o příměří na Ukrajině - iDNES.czhttps://www.idnes.cz/zpravy/zahranicni/dokument-text-dohody-z-minsku-ukrajina-rusko-obse-donbas.A150212_151911_zahranicni_vezWe need direct talks with Russia to end war in eastern Ukraine, Zelenskiy says | Reutershttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/we-need-direct-talks-with-russia-end-war-eastern-ukraine-zelenskiy-says-2021-12-01/Ukraine conflict: Anger as Zelensky agrees vote deal in east - BBC Newshttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49903996
Nationalists accused the president of capitulating to Russia, in a protest outside his office
Hundreds of Ukrainians have protested after President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had backed an agreement that would bring elections to territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists...
Nationalists rallied in Kiev with banners demanding "no capitulation".
Large parts of Luhansk and Donetsk, in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, were seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014 after Russia captured and annexed Ukraine's Crimea region.
Conflict broke out as Ukraine's army tried to recapture rebel-held areas and at least 40,000 people have been wounded. An estimated 1.5 million people have been internally displaced in the past five years.
What has Ukraine agreed?
The proposed vote is part of a plan known as the "Steinmeier formula" to bring special status in the separatist-held east.
It aimed to break the impasse over a 2015 peace deal between Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists and decide who should do what and in what order.
...
Zelensky Pushes Peace Deal Between Ukraine and Russiahttps://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/11/zelensky-pushes-peace-deal-ukraine-war-russia-donbass-steinmeier-formula/Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing his own political crisis over a compromise deal to end Ukraine’s war with Russia. And he may be losing.
The Ukrainian comic-turned-president announced on Oct. 1 that he had signed the Steinmeier Formula, a road map to ending the war with Russian-backed separatists in the eastern part of his country. The process, which is overseen by Germany and France, calls for local elections in occupied parts of the Donbass region and its recognition as a special autonomous region.
Yet Zelensky faced an immediate backlash at home after agreeing to the scheme, and he does not yet have the political support to implement the plan, casting doubt on its future.
Thousands of people took to the cobblestone streets of Kyiv and chanted “No to capitulation” following the deal’s announcement, arguing that the formula violates Ukraine’s sovereignty. Giving the occupied Donbass region an autonomous status would require changing Ukraine’s constitution, and Zelensky’s Servant of the People party lacks a supermajority in parliament to make that happen. Opposition parties reject the formula.
“Autonomy is not something that we would support,” said Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, an opposition official in parliament and former deputy prime minister. She told Foreign Policy that opposition parties would be willing to discuss other security arrangements, like the “withdrawal of Russian forces, Ukraine getting control over the border, or international peacekeeping operations from Europe or the U.N.”
Ukraine agrees to ‘Steinmeier Formula,’ green-lights elections in occupied Donbas | Article | KyivPosthttps://www.kyivpost.com/post/9548Members of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine – Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Oct. 1 agreed to a peace process known as the “Steinmeier Formula,”
by Oleksiy Sorokin, Illia Ponomarenko | October 1, 2019, 7:31 pm
Members of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine – Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Oct. 1 agreed to a peace process known as the “Steinmeier Formula,” green-lighting local elections in the Russian-controlled regions of Donbas.
The agreement envisages that the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine get a special self-governing status after they hold local elections. The elections have to take place in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation and be approved by the OSCE.
A key condition for the elections to take place is for the Russian forces and Russian-backed militants to leave the territory and for Ukraine to regain control over the eastern border with Russia, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There will be no elections ‘at the gunpoint’,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 1. “If someone (militants) will be there, there will be no elections.”
No to capitulation! - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_to_capitulation!Implementing the Minsk Agreements Would Pose a Russian Trojan Horse for Ukraine, but There Is a Third Way | Wilson Centerhttps://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/implementing-minsk-agreements-would-pose-russian-trojan-horse-ukraine-there-third-waySeparatist militants in the occupied Donbass consequently stated that Ukraine signing these agreements was "a victory for the DPR and the LPR over Ukraine".[20] Russia supported the signing of the formula, claiming it was "a positive step in resolving the situation in Donbass."[21]
Besides the potential political benefits to be realized with implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the Kremlin expects to solve an economic problem. Ukraine’s implementation of the Agreements would reduce Russia’s defense spending on the Donbas and decrease the financial burden for the Kremlin.
Another problem with the current design of the Minsk Agreements is legal: if implemented, the Agreements would violate the Ukrainian constitution and legislation. Viktor Shyshkin, an outstanding lawyer, the first general prosecutor, and a former member of the Constitutional Court, has many times provided numerous arguments as to why these Agreements are void. Among the core counterarguments to the Minsk Agreements is the need for any international accord to be approved by the Verkhovna Rada (this was not done since the Agreements were signed); further, amendments to Ukraine’s constitution cannot flow from an international agreement.
In short, implementation of the Minsk Agreements would violate Ukrainian law and most probably provoke mass protests comparable with the Euromaidan of 2013–2014. Russia’s interventions in Ukraine stepped up considerably after the Euromaidan, on the excuse of Russia wanting to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians and Russian citizens. In the case of new mass protests, no one can be sure that the Russian government will not leverage the same reasons to invade Ukraine again.