Adoption of the law on reintegration of the Donbass territories that are not controlled by Kiev is an additional argument for supplying defense armaments to Kiev by the West, the Ukrainian leader said in an address published on his website following adoption of the corresponding decisions by Verkhovna Rada.
“It strengthens the legal framework for the use of the armed forces all the more and extends their capabilities in the region. It supports arguments in favor of supplies of defense weapons to Ukraine,” Poroshenko said. He noted that though the draft project regulates the military aspect of Ukraine’s actions in Donbass, it proclaims, at the same time, “the peaceful, political and diplomatic way” as the key way in settlement of the situation in the east of the country.
The Ukrainian parliament approved on Friday in the first reading the draft law “On the special aspects of the state policy to provide state sovereignty of Ukraine over the temporarily occupied territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk region,” with 233 parliamentary members out of the needed 226 voting for it.
The document was registered in Verkhovna Rada by the country’s President Pyotr Poroshenko. In particular, it defines the Donbass areas not controlled by Kiev as “temporarily occupied territories” and Russia’s actions as “aggression against Ukraine,” whereas the president is vested with the power to use the armed forces to liberate the territories in the country’s east. It also has an amendment that removes reference to the Minsk accords from the text.