Materialization of Minsk agreement needs pressure from outside: Commentator
Press TV has conducted an interview with Fred Weir, a journalist and political commentator, about a surge in violations of a truce deal between warring sides in the Ukraine’s restive east.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: It seems ever since the Minsk agreement things have not gone according to plan or as it was hoped. The ceasefire is just one step away from a total collapse.
Weir: Well, the ceasefire was supposed to be the beginning. You know you stop the shooting and then you start making the real steps that ensure a permanent settlement. The second part of what I just said never happened. Neither side is fulfilling their obligations but in Kiev they are supposed to pass constitutional amendments that establish special status of those two republics Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine and allow for them to have elections so they can put forward you know legitimate leaders that can then go on to negotiate with Kiev.
None of that has happened and therefore the situation is unstable; you know it is in complete flux. It is spring time now which is traditionally the time you know the ground hardens; you can pole artillery peace. This may be part of the reason for the increase in violence just that weather is better but the underlying reason is that noting has settled and as long as that is the case you have pressures on both sides to return to the battlefield and this is a real big danger in months to come if there is not a new push on to make them fulfill, on both sides, their political obligations. We are going to see the realization of the Minsk II agreement.
Press TV: Why is it that the Minsk agreement has not been fully implemented and we have not gone from this first step to another? Is it a lack of pressure, a lack of political will or a lack of just simple incentives to move forward?
Weir: Yes, I think there is not enough pressure from outside because if you remember the Minsk agreements were kind of imposed from outside. Moscow and the European Union basically brought Kiev to the bargaining table and rebel representatives and they signed it. Neither side liked it. This is the problem in Kiev. It is almost politically impossible to pass those constitution changes because the right wing will take to the streets and they have done several times when this comes up. And so it is just politically impossible for them to do it and in the eastern republics moods have hardened. You see the Minsk requires that they eventually integrate back into Ukraine and now their mood is they do not want to be part of Ukraine any more.
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