The bill concerns exclusively the internal optimization of administrative management and is related to the provision of social and financial guarantees for residents of the territories controlled by Ukraine; it does not provide for Ukraine to abandon the occupied areas or cede them to Russia. In addition, it is being considered by a special committee and may not be adopted
Russian media reports that a bill has been submitted to the Ukrainian parliament for consideration, «which aims to include the Donetsk and Luhansk regions territories controlled by Kyiv (i.e., parts of the DPR and LPR) into neighboring regions (Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk), in order to «not give up» these lands during the negotiation process by renaming them administratively».
It is important to note that this is a bill that is only under consideration by a special committee, which may be changed by making amendments or may not pass as a result of a vote in parliament. Its initiator, Anna Skorokhod, emphasized that the document concerns exclusively the internal optimization of administrative management and is related to the provision of social and financial guarantees for residents of territories controlled by Ukraine.
For Slidstvo.info, Anna Skorokhod also explained that the purpose of this bill is not to abandon the occupied territories, but to «strengthen the negotiating position» (although this argument is lacking from the explanatory documents to the bill — ed.).
«First of all, we are strengthening the negotiating position, because the Ukrainian side said that we may consider the issue of the demarcation line. And that side — the enemy — really wants the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions. And changing the borders here will strengthen the position, because we will protect our people and our territories. We simply will not give them up, because we will already change the administrative borders,» Skorokhod said.
The Dnipropetrovsk Regional Council head, Mykola Lukashuk, criticized this initiative, stating that such actions can be interpreted as «a concession to Russian propaganda about these regions» and that the bill could create «a dangerous precedent for future territorial manipulations».
«The only thing we can agree on is minimizing the costs of maintaining two regional military administrations. But this should be done in other ways using other mechanisms. Politics should solve people’s problems. What problem does this resolution solve for the residents of the Donetsk region? It provides neither security, nor better services, nor social guarantees,» Lukashuk said.
Moreover, a representative of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on the Organization of State Power, Vitaliy Bezgin, where this document will be considered first, stated that such an initiative would not even pass their committee.
«We have a special profile law On the Procedure for Solving Certain Issues of the Administrative-Territorial System. It is this law that regulates the corresponding procedures. Well, this law does not contain any norms that would allow changing the borders of the regions. That’s the point. Without changes in the law and a description of the relevant procedure in the law, everything is pointless,» Bezgin said in a comment for LB.ua.
Earlier, StopFake refuted the claim that Ukraine is allegedly ready to recognize Donbas as Russian.
