|
Donetsk chief negotiator could be investigated
 For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately. By Chris Covert Rantburg.com Donetsk People's Republic chief negotiator in ongoing peace talks between Donetsk and Lugansk and Ukraine, Denis Pusilin, has been publicly -- albeit not officially -- charged with abuse of power, according to Russian language news sources. An individual identified as an analyst, Roman Manekin posted an online petition which states that Pusilin has been negotiating with his Ukrainian counterparties to offer changes in the Donetsk constitution that would aid in reintegrating Donetsk as an autonomous political unit within a Ukrainian federation. At the moment both Donetsk and Lugansk are independent republics. The issue of autonomy versus independence has been a touchy topic with officials in both breakaway republics, many of whom have changed their stance in favor -- or against -- independence since the first ceasefire, known as Minsk I. Pusilin has been on the Donetsk ceasefire negotiating team since Minsk I. Donetsk has had a foreign ministry since last fall, but its head, Aleksandr Kofman noted only a few days ago that the reason his department is not part of the contact group in multilateral talks is because, according to Kofman, the negotiating team are trained lawyers. Officials in both Donetsk and Lugansk are extremely sensitive to issues relating to independence. The official stance of Lugansk president Igor Plotinitsky has been that Lugansk is to be integrated into the Russian Federation, a stance which in part has caused a small civil war within a civil war in both Lugansk and Donetsk, pitting Cossack units, whose commanders want independence, against military units for both republics. The civil war within a civil war has cost the lives of a few top commanders at the hands of Russian special forces, colloquially known as "Green Men". Although he denies it, Plotinitsky was publicly charged with involvement in the murder of the popular commander, Alexei Mozgovoy last weekend. At the moment, peace talks are stalled in the wake of remarks by Ukrainian president Piotr Poroshenko, who said Wednesday that he will not talk with the political leaders of Donetsk or Lugansk about any proposed settlement in the now year old war. Donetsk president Aleksandr Zakharchenko responded, in context of Poroshenko's remarks and the Ukrainian shelling of Gorlovka, that he reserves the right to respond at his discretion instead of holding return fire. Since the February Minsk II ceasefire, rebel fores have consistently claimed their forces have held fire in response to Ukrainian fire. Meanwhile, at the contact lines exchange of fire continues between the two combatants. The Donetsk Ministry of Defense official, Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin said that Ukrainian forces have fired on rebel forces in several localities including western Donetsk, Gorlovka and Shirokino. In western Donetsk city, rebels claimed that Ukrainian forces hit targets at Spartak, Oktyrabrsky mining district and at the airport. In Gorvlovka, rebel officials say Ukrainian artillery hit targets, killing five civilians, wounding nine, and damaging residences. Gorlovka has been the scene of exchange of heavy artillery between the two combatants since the start of the year, with little respite. Ukrainian defense officials said Thursday that rebel forces have fired weapons in western Donetsk, including mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and small arms. Ukrainian officials say that rebel forces fired on them at Shirokino using mortars, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft guns and small arms. Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here. Posted by: badanov 2015-05-29 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=419125 |