MOSCOW, November 24. /TASS/. The rival peace plan for Ukraine drafted by the United Kingdom, Germany, and France is an attempt to derail a diplomatic settlement, Ukraine’s former Prime Minister (2010-2014) Nikolay Azarov said.
"It (the E3 plan - TASS) is clearly an attempt to turn a peace plan into an endless war!" he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Azarov, Europe’s proposal to set a cap on the Ukrainian armed forces at 800,000 troops "in peace time" cannot be implemented because Ukraine’s economy is unable to provide for such a big army. Hence, as follows from the plan, the maintenance of the Ukrainian army should be taken over by Western countries.
The Europeans, in his words, are deliberately inserting conditions it knows Russia cannot accept, all in an effort to prolong the war so that their defense sectors can continue to cash in on the bloodshed.
"So for them, a peace treaty means dropping their plans for spending 5 to 7 trillion euro on defense in the next three to four years. What do you expect them to do?" he pointed out.
Peace plan
The United States and Ukraine held consultation on Washington’s 28-point peace plan on Sunday. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the meeting as the most productive since the beginning of the conflict. According to the Ukrainian media, Washington and Kiev managed to agree on a large part of the plan. The United States, according to Rubio, agreed to isolate issues of Ukraine’s European integration and potential NATO membership as a separate negotiating track.
According to Western media reports, the initial version of the US peace plan suggested that Ukraine abandon plans to join NATO, and for the bloc not to integrate Kiev into its area of operation. Apart from that, under the plan, the United States and other countries were supposed to recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and Donbass, while Ukrainian troops should withdraw from the Donetsk People’s Republic and Ukraine should recognize Russian as an official language. Moreover, it envisaged the reduction of the Ukrainian army and lifting of anti-Russian sanctions.
EU leaders opposed these provisions and the United Kingdom, France, and Germany presented their rival plan for settling the Ukrainian crisis. The full text of their counterplan was released by Reuters. Their plan allows for admitting Ukraine into NATO and deploying NATO troops in its territory under the national command. According to the Europeans, the Ukrainian army should be capped at 800,000 "in peace time." Russia, in turn, will be offered to resume security discussions.