Russian Information Agency Novosti
April 29, 2014
OPINION: Civil War in Ukraine Could Start After Presidential Election
MOSCOW: Civil war in Ukraine could break out as soon as next month, the deputy director of research programs at Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy said Tuesday.
“A civil war might kick off on May 26-27, as it is obvious that federalization supporters will not go anywhere and, apparently, will not be satisfied by some superficial amendments to the Ukrainian constitution, which will not introduce any essential changes, changes to the basis of domestic relations in Ukraine,” Dmitry Suslov said during a round table meeting at RIA Novosti.
Ukraine faced a regime change in February when the country’s parliament, backed by far-right movements, voted to strip President Viktor Yanukovych of his powers, amended the constitution and slated early presidential elections for May 25.
Moscow says that the legitimacy of the upcoming election will depend on a number of conditions, including transparency, fairness and taking the interests of the regions into account.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week that the vote would turn destructive for the entire country if Kiev refused to respect the demands of the southeastern regions.
“The US and Kiev are totally fine with the vague status quo in Ukraine’s east,” Suslov said adding that the main aim of the United States and the Kiev authorities is to conduct elections at any cost to officially authorize the results of the coup d’état.
“The fact that the election will not take place in some Ukrainian region will hardly disturb either the Kiev authorities or the United States,” the expert said.
He also stressed that neither the United States nor the Ukrainian interim government comply with the principles outlined in the Geneva communique on April 17.
The rallies of pro-federalization activists began last month in eastern Ukraine, with protesters in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv calling for a referendum on the status of their respective regions within the country. To quell the protests the Ukrainian interim government announced a special anti-terrorist operation targeting the cities of Kramatorsk and Slaviansk in the Donetsk region.
The move was strongly condemned by Moscow that called the decision to use force an extremely dangerous development of the events.
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