No light at end of tunnel in Donbas - Kuchma
CHERNIHIV. Sept 9 (Interfax) - The situation around the Donbas settlement remains complicated: the Russian side still demands that elections be held in the region but hostilities there continue, Leonid Kuchma, second president of Ukraine (1994-2005) and Ukraine's representative in the Contact Group on the settlement in Donbas, said.
"I could say that we won't be long now [...] and there's a light at the end of the tunnel, that the war will be over soon, but the light has yet to be seen. [...] The situation is very complicated, [although] not hopeless," Kuchma said during an exchange with students of the Chernihiv State Technological University.
Kuchma revealed that it was planned to raise this question at a four-sided meeting at the G20 summit but it never materialized, because someone would have to "appear before the Group of Twenty and say what particular things are being proposed in order to bring about peace in Ukraine". "And now Russia puts off the first clause about the cessation of hostilities and says: go ahead, adopt the special status! What special status, when it's war out there? Let's wait a bit; our negotiations bring no joy, but still, we are moving. We are solving many economical, social problems there, quite many," Kuchma said.
However, Kuchma particularly thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the firm position, without which, in his view, the negotiating "playground would have been destroyed".
Kuchma recalled that, acting on behalf of Ukraine, he had signed the Minsk Agreements on settlement of the conflict in Donbas and "it is clearly stated there what is to be done: suspension of hostilities, withdrawal of all heavy weapons, verification of weaponry under the aegis of the OSCE, withdrawal of military forces from Ukraine and then, going forward, political reform, the elections".
But can the elections in Donbas be held in such a way to comply with the OSCE standards by law? "Who of the observers will go there? What kind of campaigning can be done there?" Kuchma said.
He noted, however, that 1,700,000 people from the uncontrolled areas have moved to the government-held territory and the residents have actually no opportunity to take part in the Ukrainian elections.
Referring to the decentralization demanded by the Russian side, and the special status for Donbas, Kuchma said: "I'm sorry [but] it's never going to happen". "There is one desire out there: to have the elections held by hook or by crook and throw this territory off to Ukraine. [...] The entire social structure has by now been destroyed down there. And the environmental problems there will be enough for whole Europe. [...] To have [back] the region in such a condition, the one that needs billions of dollars, is to destroy Ukraine," he said.
Kuchma noted that Russia does not need Donbas, given the region's existing problems. "It needs Donbas in order to swing the situation in Ukraine," Kuchma said.
