De-Occupation of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine — Is Not in the West's Plans

Since February 20, 2014 to the present day, Ukraine has been experiencing the cynical aggression by the state, which is one of the guarantors of its independence and territorial integrity in accordance with the provisions of the Memorandum of Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine's Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (December 5, 1994, Budapest, Republic of Hungary).

As a result of the Russian Federation's undeclared “hybrid war” against Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Sevastopol and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions for 2.5 years have been occupied by the aggressor (Russia) and the supported by it pro-Russian separatist and extremist and terrorist groups.

Due to the USA and EU's geopolitical ambitions, during these 2.5 years the international community has been trying to resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with the help of political and diplomatic means within the framework of the “Normandy Format” negotiations (or quadripartite “Normandy Four” negotiating format: Germany-France-Russia-Ukraine), actually giving the question of resolving the armed conflict in the East of Ukraine at the mercy of the European Union's leaders — Germany and France. The question of returning the Crimea to Ukraine has not even been raised. It has been left “for later”.

All this time the leaders of the “Normandy Four” have met only four times (twice in 2014 /June 6 in France; October 16-17 in Italy/ and twice in 2015 /February 11-12 in Belarus; October 2 in France/), but these meetings were not marked by any significant results, except for the third one, at which the so-called Minsk Agreements were achieved and were developed steps to implement them, which the Russian side since the very beginning has been interpreting in its own way, cynically refusing to comply with them and constantly breaking them. Similar is the situation with the results of the negotiations within the framework of the “Normandy Format” at the level of Foreign Ministers. That is, it can be argued that both, the “Normandy Format” of the negotiations and the Minsk Agreements on the settlement of the situation in the East of Ukraine have proved to be powerless and in fact unworkable.

September 14-16, 2016, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and of France — Jean-Marc Ayrault visited Ukraine, supposedly to discuss the possibility of returning to the “Normandy Format” of the negotiations and to find compromise between Ukraine and Russia on the issue of ending the conflict. In reality they tried to make pressure on the official Kyiv, taking advantage of the temporally lull in the Donbas. In their opinion, the relative silence in the Donbas is already enough for Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to accelerate the adoption of laws on the special status of the Donbas, a full amnesty for the militants and local elections in the occupied territory, which would allow Berlin and Paris to declare the end of the conflict in the East of Ukraine and to reap the laurels of “peacekeepers”. And the fact that Putin's “Trojan horse” (the occupied areas of the Donbas) would be actually “pushed” into Ukraine — this does not worry the West!

At this, they did not speak about the withdrawal of Russian troops and arms from the occupied territory of the Donbas, or about the establishment of Ukraine's control over the eastern 409 km-long section of the state border at all. In fact, Ukraine is invited to agree to Russia's capitulatory plan, which has already received among Ukrainian experts an apt name of “Ayrault-Medvedchuk plan” (by analogy with the “Medvedev-Sarkozy plan,” which by force was imposed by Europe in 2008 on Georgia, under pressure from Moscow). Now they want to do the same with Ukraine.

In response to all these proposals (read — to this pressure), Ukraine has made it clear that it does not intend to listen to the Project of Western partners, which actually translate the Russian scenario to resolve the conflict in the East of Ukraine. Thus, the official Kyiv has pointed out that the conflict in the Donbas is a pan-European problem, that Russia is leading a “hybrid war” against the entire Western world, and that Ukraine is actually the vanguard, which today is the only one opposing to this phenomenon.

Kyiv is not going to forget about the Crimea, where Russia on September 18 is holding the elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. The Kremlin's insidious plan is later to introduce the newly elected councilors-Crimean people into all sorts of international organizations, in particular into the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and by the fact of “active voting” in the Crimea, Moscow will emphasize the well-known slogan “The Crimea is ours”. Ukraine demands from the international community not to recognize the results of the elections to the new State Duma, but it is expected that the West, as always, will limit itself to purely general declarations, because it will not want to argue with Russia, because it is afraid of its unpredictable subsequent actions.

So, as we can see from the above-mentioned, the question of Russia's occupation of the territory of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Sevastopol and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is not on the agenda of our Western partners, nor is there a question of de-occupation (liberation of the territories occupied by Russia and restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity). That is, resolving the issues of the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine is today one of its most important tasks. And this resolving should be started with developing an appropriate regulatory framework.

In general, as the expert analysis shows, today Russia is trying to avoid international legal responsibility for its crimes committed against Ukraine, international peace, human security and world order.

As a result of Russia's military aggression, the modern system of public administration of the national security of Ukraine has faced a whole range of new challenges and threats in the politico-military and economic and social spheres, and millions of citizens of Ukraine were not only without any means of the State's protection, but without a clearly defined legal status.

It should be noted that to date, despite the strategic need for the immediate and effective regulation of relations in the temporarily occupied by Russia Ukrainian territories, which should be aimed at the restoration of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country, protection of Ukrainian people's rights and interests, the above-mentioned challenges and threats to national security have never found the legislator's proper reaction in the legal system of Ukraine.

So, in fact, there is a huge legislative (regulatory) “gap” in this issue, which needs to be urgently eliminated — the sooner the better.

July 19, 2016 in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft law was registered “On the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine”. The draft legislation had been prepared by a group of People's Deputies of Ukraine.

The Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” is aimed at creating an effective national system of state governing, at prompt and effective regulation of relations in the temporarily occupied territory of our State, its speedy liberation, restoration of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine on the whole territory and protection of the rights and interests of the Ukrainian people.

The draft law provides for increasing the effectiveness of the national security policy of the State to create mechanisms to restore the sovereignty and the rule of law on the territory liberated from the temporary occupation; measures for adaptation to civilian life of the residents of the liberated territory, as well as complex processes to restore justice and reconciliation in the liberated from the temporary occupation Ukrainian territories.

In this context, an especially important component of the Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” is the defining by its developers of the concept of “a temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine”, as well as establishing clear terms of the beginning of the occupation, which certainly is a legal novel.

Thus, the developers of the Draft Law recognize as a temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine the following thing:

1) the land territory of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and Sevastopol, inland waters of these territories;

2) Ukraine's internal sea waters and territorial sea around the Crimean Peninsula;

3) the airspace over the territories referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2;

4) the territory of certain districts and administrative-territorial units of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as defined in a separate Annex;

5) Ukraine's internal sea waters and territorial sea along the coast of the occupied part of Donetsk region;

6) The air space over the territories referred to in paragraphs 4 and 5.

At this, the day of the beginning of the Russian Federation's temporary occupation of the territory of Ukraine, as defined in paragraphs 1-3, is February 20, 2014.

In turn, the developers of the Draft Law determine that the date of the beginning of the Russian Federation's temporary occupation of certain districts of Donetsk region is April 7, 2014, and of certain districts of Luhansk region — April 27, 2014.

Besides, the legislator also points out a number of significant gaps in the regulation of legal relations in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, namely:

– today there is no legal regulation of the legal status of the temporarily occupied territory of certain districts, cities, towns and villages of Donetsk and Luhansk region;

– there is not any normative legal basis for the procedure for determining the boundaries of the temporarily occupied territory, the regime of its crossing by people and order of transportation of goods and cargo through it;

– the adopted with a view to resolving the status of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and Sevastopol Laws of Ukraine “On ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens and legal regime in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine” and “On the creation of “The Crimea” free economic zone and peculiarities of economic activity in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine” are not aimed at solving the fundamental problem of the restoration of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, but vice versa — they simplify for the state-occupier the tasks of supporting its occupying administration, helping to supply the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with resources needed to maintain it in the high combat readiness;

– in the current situation, the adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Law of Ukraine “On Special Procedure of the Local Government in Certain Districts of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions” of September 16, 2014, has no effective mechanisms for protection of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the State in the temporarily occupied territories.

According to experts, an important aspect of the Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” is introduction of a clear national security governance system for de-occupation of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory. Here we mean: the cleansing of the liberated temporarily occupied territories from the remnants of the enemy armed forces, spies, saboteurs and Russian propaganda; demining, identifying the carriers of the propaganda, confiscation of weapons, documents about the activities of the occupying state and its occupation administration, as well as restoration of critical infrastructure; providing the population with all necessary for life; resumption of the work of public authorities and peculiarities of the legal regime of martial law on the territory liberated from the temporary occupation.

The Draft Law proposes a holistic system of measures aimed at restoration of Ukraine's state power bodies and local governments, state and municipal agencies, as well as cultural organizations and institutions of education and health care.

An important component of the process of de-occupation is legislative support for the electoral process for the local public authorities in the liberated from the occupation territories of Ukraine.

The draft Law also provides for the establishment of the Commission of Understanding, which will include on an equal footing influential moral authorities and the country's legitimate representatives of residents of the territories liberated from the temporary occupation. The Commission will be empowered to deprive the right to hold certain posts or to be engaged in certain activities in relation to persons who had been implementing the Russian Federation's policy of occupation directly through the organs of the occupation administration or through other illegal formations, spreading in the society hatred to Ukraine and encouraging to support the occupation.

Another important point is that because of the establishment of the exclusive competence of the Commission — the people, who were actually hostages of the situation and performed passively normal civic obligations under occupation, are not subjected to any harassment by the state.

As the conclusions, I would like to emphasize the following:

Firstly, according to experts, the prepared by a group of People's Deputies of Ukraine Draft Law of Ukraine “On the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine” is a thorough piece of legislation that will clearly regulate the status and legal regime of the temporarily occupied territory, contribute to the liberation of the territory of Ukraine from the Russian occupation and protect the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine;

Secondly, the adoption of this Draft Law will allow Ukraine to significantly improve the efficiency of the national system of state control to restore the sovereignty and territorial integrity in the temporarily occupied by Russia Ukrainian territories;

Thirdly, the successful implementation of the tasks provided for in the Law will ensure restoration of law and order in the territory liberated from the temporary occupation, ensure removing from central power and local self-governance the persons who have contributed to the occupation of the territory of Ukraine. The Law will also speed up the restoration of peace, stability, security and democratic development of our State.