Kyiv: Bill on reintegration of Donbas is almost ready, Russia is called ‘country-aggressor’
The bill on the reintegration of the Donbass is 99.9% ready for submission to the Ukrainian parliament, said Iryna Lutsenko, the representative of the President of Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada, Channel 5 reports.
"The bill on the reintegration of the Donbas, that is, the law on state policy and the direction of state policy on the return and restoration of the Donbas, is completed," Lutsenko stressed. She clarified that "this project, in fact, is 99.9% complete. It was reviewed. Consultations with our partners in the ‘Normandy format’ were even held,” the politician said.
According to Lutsenko, experts and specialists from the United States were invited to the consultations on this bill. She also said that the relevant bill was drafted with the participation of experts from the Presidential Administration, a working group of representatives of the parliamentary coalition, lawyers, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.
"It [the bill] is fully-fledged. I think that certain points from this bill will also be in the President's address to the Verkhovna Rada," Lutsenko said.
She stressed that in the new bill, the concept of Russia as the aggressor will be introduced for the first time at the legislative level. Also, according to the new Bill on the Occupied Territories, Ukraine has a right to use the army and is not responsible for the situation on the temporarily occupied territories.
On June 13, NSDC (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine that it is necessary to end the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) and move to a new format of defending the country from a hybrid war with Russia. He said that the relevant bill is under development, after which it will be submitted to the president and then to the Verkhovna Rada.
Commenting on Turchynov's statement, President Petro Poroshenko clarified that the bill will deal with the reintegration of the Donbas and establish measures to return the occupied territories. It must also determine their legal status.
The bill was planned to be considered at the NSDC meeting on July 10 but consideration was postponed.