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Kiev seeks to monopolize Donbass reconciliation dialogue — expert

A Ukrainian expert believes that the issue of peace in Donbass is an "important political tool"

KIEV, February 20. /TASS/. The Ukrainian government is seeking to monopolize the issue of Donbass reconciliation by not letting others to theorize about possible ways to solve the eastern Ukrainian crisis, a leading Ukrainian political expert said on Tuesday.

"Any attempt to monopolize the dialogue regarding the future of Donbass within Ukraine is a crime. <...> We realize that the government is trying to reserve the exclusive right for the issue," said Ruslan Bortnik, the director of the Ukrainian Institute for Policy Analysis and Management.

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Four years after Minsk-2 deal, Kiev continues to breach accord, says opposition MP

He described the government’s attempts "to revoke people's citizenship, to publicly condemn them, to launch criminal cases only for making theories on how to preserve Donbass and to re-incorporate it into Ukraine" as "wild totalitarianism."

He believes that the issue of peace in Donbass was an important political tool, and the Kiev government was doing its best to keep its exclusive right for it. However, according to Bortnik, such a monopoly will slow down any progress on the matter.

On February 5, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk, who chairs the political council of the Opposition Platform - For Life party. He was accused of high treason. According to the prosecutors, speaking at his party congress on January 29, Medvedchuk said that "the so-called ‘autonomous Donbass region’ with its own parliament and government should be established." That runs counter to Article 1 of the Ukrainian Constitution, which stipulates that the country is a unitary state, the prosecutors said.

Commenting on the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Medvedchuk dismissed the allegations as ridiculous and groundless. The politician believes that Kiev has turned down his plan on Donbass because the current government does not seek peace.

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