FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
UNSC Meets on Ukraine, as West Rejects Local Elections in Breakaway Donbas Republics
Nov. 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council met on Oct. 30 to discuss the situation in the Donbas, Ukraine, apparently focusing on the plans of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic to hold elections in the aftermath of the assassination of D.P.R. leader Alexander Zakharchenko. However, the dominant view coming out of the meeting is that the elections should not take place. “[We urge] all parties to avoid any unilateral steps that could deepen the divide or depart from the spirit and letter of the Minsk Agreements,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary A. DiCarlo, in reference to the Nov. 11 elections planned for both the D.P.R. and the Luhansk People’s Republic. “Any such measures, taken outside Ukraine’s constitutional and legal framework, would be incompatible with the Minsk Agreements,” she claimed, calling upon all parties to “recommit” to their full implementation and help usher in peace and stability to all of Ukraine.
Britain, France, Poland, the Netherlands and Sweden (but not the U.S.) issued a joint statement claiming that the elections would be “illegitimate” and “contravene commitments” made under the 2015 Minsk agreements, and urging “the separatists to abandon the plans for ‘elections.’ ” It also called on Russia to “bring its considerable influence to bear to stop the so-called ‘elections’ from taking place.”
Denis Pushilin, the acting leader of the D.P.R., was livid already when it became clear that the D.P.R./L.P.R. election representatives who had been invited to the UNSC meeting by Russia would not be permitted to address the Council, which he called “at least wrong and non-objective.” Pushilin added that the UN Security Council never holds a meeting when civilians are being killed by Ukraine armed forces, or when the Kiev regime is otherwise engaged in every effort to sabotage the Minsk agreements.
“But, the UN Security Council has decided to discuss the issue of elections in the Donbas republics, which in no way run counter to the Minsk agreements,” which, he said, envisage such elections, though they’ve never yet been held. “In any case, elections in the Donetsk People’s Republic will he held. They will be transparent, open and will comply with our laws, our constitution and all international norms and standards,”
he said.
