Moscow -- Berlin explains the disruption of an agreement on settling the crisis in Ukraine signed in Kyiv in February 2014 and verified by top-ranking German, French and Polish diplomats by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's departure from Kyiv and then from Ukraine.
“That agreement was good. The problem was that one of the signatories to that agreement, namely President Yanukovych, left the country, and it was no longer possible to implement the provisions of this agreement. The fact that he left the country meant huge changes in the alignment of forces in Ukraine,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a press conference following negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Lavrov, however, disagreed that the absence of then Ukrainian President Yanukovych in Kyiv was the reason for disregarding the February agreement.
“I don’t think that Yanukovych’s departure from Kyiv to the southeast of the country – especially considering that he in fact ceded all powers in that agreement – dashed the goal of ensuring national unity in Ukraine,” Lavrov said at the same press conference.
“What’s the relationship between some individual and the need for national accord?” Lavrov said. “I don’t think it was right to sever this agreement,” he said.
At the same time, he believes it makes no sense to discuss what happened in the past. “It’s no use raking up the past, and the main goal now is to stop the armed confrontation in the southeast, draw a separating line, and pull the heavy weapons apart,” he said.
“But when we start thinking about Ukraine’s long-term stabilization, it would be wrong to forget about the goal of national unity and national accord, and now also national reconciliation. And it would be wrong to forget about that very constitutional reform that Ukraine undertook to pursue in Geneva on April 17,” Lavrov said.
An agreement on settling the crisis in Ukraine was signed on Feb. 21, 2014, after a standoff between the then authorities and the opposition in Kyiv had worsened dramatically. The document was signed by then President Viktor Yanukovych and the leaders of three opposition parliamentary factions, i.e. Vitali Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tiahnybok.
The agreement was also verified by Steinmeier, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, and chief of the French Foreign Ministry’s Continental Europe Department Eric Fournier.
The document stipulated that a special law would be passed, signed and published within 48 hours from the signing of the agreement to renew the 2004 Constitution with amendments made to it by the time.
The signatories stated their intention to form a national unity coalition over the next ten days.
Constitutional reform aimed at balancing the powers of the president, government and parliament was to be launched immediately and completed in September 2014.
Presidential elections were to be held immediately after the adoption of a new constitution but not later than December 2014. New election laws were to be passed and new Central Election Commission formed on a proportionate basis in accordance with the rules of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Venice Commission.
The authorities committed not to impose a state of emergency, and both the authorities and opposition declared their intention to refrain from violent actions.
The concluding provision of the agreement indicated that the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland and the Russian president’s special representative called for all violence and confrontation to be immediately discontinued.
