Ukrainian media: In the new bill on de-occupation of Donbas Russia is called an aggressor Thursday, July 13, 2017 10:06:00 AM

The online publication Hromadske published the text of the bill “on the characteristics of state policy on the restoration of state sovereignty over the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces of Ukraine”.

Russia is called the aggressor for the first time in the document which will bring an end to the anti-terrorist operation.

“The Russian Federation is carrying out armed aggression against Ukraine and the temporary occupation of parts of its territory by means of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, which consist of regular units and divisions, Russian advisors and instructors, irregular illegal armed formations, armed bands and groups of mercenaries, created, subordinated to, controlled and funded by the Russian Federation, and also by means of the occupation administration of the Russian Federation, which is composed of its state organs which operate within the temporarily occupied territory and the self-declared organs controlled by the Russian Federation, which usurped the exercise of state functions in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the start of the bill reads.

The document gives a definition of the occupied territories and recognizes all organs of the occupation authority which are currently operating there as illegal.

The bill to reintegrate the Donbas recognizes Russia as the occupier and authorizes the use of the army.

The goal of the state policy on the occupied Donbas is defined as the liberation of the territories and the restoration of the constitutional system; protecting the rights, freedoms and legal interests of Ukrainian citizens who are victims of Russian aggression; reinforcing the independence, statehood, and ensuring the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In order to do this, the President of Ukraine will be granted the opportunity to use the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and other military formations specified by the law. Currently the army can only be called on in the event of an anti-terrorist operation or martial law. The United Operational Headquarters of the AFU will be given control over the forces and resources which will be called to combat. The president will appoint its head according to the suggestion of the chief of the General Staff.

“The United Operational Headquarters of the AFU will be responsible for planning, organizing and controlling the achieving of objectives to ensure defense, state, economic, information and ecological security in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, including managing the activity of civic-military or military administrations if they are created in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on matters of national security and defense,” - thus the powers of the United Headquarters are described in the bill.

On June 13 in an interview for Interfax-Ukraine, NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said that it is necessary to end the anti-terrorist operation and transition to a new format of national defense against Russia’s hybrid warfare. He said that the relevant bill was being worked on, after which it would be presented to the president and introduced in the Verkhovna Rada.

Commenting on Turchynov’s statement, President Petro Poroshenko clarified that the bill would concern the reintegration of the Donbas, and would entail a number of measures to bring back the occupied territories. It is also supposed to determine their legal status.

Initially the bill was scheduled for consideration at a session of the NSDC on July 10, but this matter was postponed.

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