MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Ukraine’s law on reintegration of Donbass, which came into effect last week, shows that the country’s policy is carried out in the interests of the West, not of Ukraine, Russian Federation Council (upper house) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday.
"Everything what is happening is unacceptable. There is no logical explanation. The policy that is pursued is pro-American and pro-Western, but not pro-Ukrainian," Matviyenko stressed.
Ukraine’s authorities are making every effort to "keep the civil war and support the conflict." "This is certainly not beneficial for the Ukrainian people, and I think it is clear who benefits from this," she said.
Instead of making these "cynical decisions," the Kiev authorities should better implement the Minsk peace accords and start restoring the country, Matviyenko noted.
The law "On the special aspects of state policy aimed at ensuring Ukraine’s state sovereignty over the temporarily occupied areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions" (on Donbass reintegration) entered into force on February 24.
The document, initiated by President Pyotr Poroshenko, refers to the specified eastern regions as "temporarily occupied territories" and defines Russia’s actions as "aggression against Ukraine."
The bill provides for setting up the joint operation headquarters of the Ukrainian armed forces to control all military units and military-civil administrations in the conflict zone and gives the president the right to use the armed forces inside the country without the parliament’s consent. In addition, all references to the Minsk agreements were removed from the document.