Ukraine ratified a sweeping agreement with the European Union on
Tuesday - an issue at the heart of the Russia-West crisis over its
future - and sought to blunt the independence drive of Russian-backed
separatists by offering them temporary and limited
self-rule,Reutersreports.
Although Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko savored a historic
triumph with parliament's seal of approval for the EU deal, his
peacemaking efforts drew derision from separatists and some mainstream
politicians, while his military reported three more deaths of
Ukrainian servicemen despite an 11-day ceasefire.
"No nation has ever paid such a high price to become Europeans,"
Poroshenko told parliament referring to the bloody conflict that has
gripped Ukraine since his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovich, walked away
from the EU pact last November in favor of closer ties with Ukraine's
former Soviet master, Russia.
After Yanukovich fled to Russia in February in the face of huge street
protests, Moscow denounced a pro-Western "coup" against him, annexed
Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and subsequently backed armed pro-Russian
separatists in eastern regions in their drive for independence from
Kiev.
The chain of events has provoked the worst crisis between Russia and
the West since the Cold War. The United States and its Western allies
imposed sanctions against Moscow over a conflict with pro-Russian
separatists in eastern Ukraine in which more than 3,000 people have
been killed.
Just moments earlier, at a closed session of parliament, deputies
voted in support of Poroshenko's plan to grant "special status' to the
'people's republics' proclaimed by the separatists.
Poroshenko elaborated the plan after reluctantly agreeing to a
ceasefire on Sept. 5 following battlefield losses and heavy Ukrainian
casualties which Kiev said were caused by Russian troops entering the
fight on behalf of the rebels.
The law would grant self-rule to separatist-minded regions for a
three-year period and allow them to "strengthen and deepen" relations
with neighboring Russian regions.
It would allow the heavily-armed rebels to set up their own police
forces and hold their own local elections in December.
A separate law also crucially offered freedom from prosecution to
separatists who have been fighting government forces - though there
would be no amnesty for those involved in the July 17 shooting down of
the Malaysian airliner nor people involved in purely criminal acts.
"These laws are an attempts to create a chance for the gradual
peaceful settlement of the crisis in the Donbass," political analyst
Volodymyr Fesenko said.
"It has to be understood that other variants for the development of
events are either freezing the conflict, or war in which Ukraine can
lose the whole of the Donbass and possibly even more."
But they quickly drew criticism from both sides.
Rebel leader Andrei Purgin toldReutersin the separatist-held city of
Donetsk: "The basic part of the document which forsees us politically
staying on Ukrainian territory - that is, naturally, not acceptable."
"We will insist that any political unions with Ukraine are not
possible now in principle," Purgin said, renewing charges against the
Ukrainian military of violating the Sept. 5 truce.
No breakdown of the parliamentary vote was given after the closed-door session.
Poroshenko risks falling foul of his supporters in the pro-Western
establishment if he is perceived as laying the ground for a permanent
breakaway state within Ukraine and under Russian protection, similar
to those in other ex-Soviet states such as Moldova and Georgia.
"I consider it absolutely wrong to vote capitulation after all these
losses. We need peace, and not a truce - but not at any price. We
consider these draft laws to be a complete capitulation," said Oleh
Tyahnibok, leader of the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, before
the session.
"No-one gave the President the right to put the fate of the people of
the Donbass (the industrial east) into the hands of terrorists. If
this law comes into force it will only lead to an escalation of the
conflict," Andriy Senchenko, a deputy of the Batkivshchyna
(Fatherland) party, said before the closed session.
Incidents of mortar shelling in and around Donetsk continued to put
the ceasefire under pressure and claimed further lives.
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