MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Confusion over actions that Kiev has been taking is growing in the European Union, as these actions run contrary to norms accepted in Europe and put EU countries in an awkward position in talks on the Donbass conflict, President of the Center for Systemic Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko said at a roundtable hosted by TASS on Tuesday.
"Over the recent weeks and maybe even months, confusion has been growing between the European Union and Ukraine," the expert said. "The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has stomped on the Ukrainian state and its president. Hungary even started encouraging separatism in the Zakarpatye region, actually manifecting its territorial claims," Ishchenko added.
The Donbass reintegration law, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine’s parliament] in the first reading together with a bill extending the law on the special status of Donbass, put the European Union in an awkward position. "These two laws contradict one another," Ishchenko said. "They make the implementation of the Minsk Agreements impossible because Russia is a guarantor state of the accords, while a guarantor cannot be aggressor at the same time," the expert pointed out.
"The reintegration law puts both Ukraine and the EU in a very awkward position because our European partners and counterparts in the Minsk process and the Normandy Quartet will now have to decide what Russia actually is - a guarantor from the standpoint of international law or an aggressor in accordance with the Ukrainian legislation," Ishchenko said.
At the same time, in his words, in the near term the European Union is likely to continue turning a blind eye to Kiev’s actions and demanding that Russia implement the Minsk Agreements, as Brussels believes that Kiev’s policy is based on some domestic reasons. "As soon as Ukrainian negotiators start to deviate from their own legislation, their worthy Nazi friends will come to them asking ‘Why do you not enforce our laws?’ And then the next stage of the Ukrainian crisis will being," the expert concluded.