Moscow — Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday halted all trade with two under Russian control of the separatist enclaves in the East, and thus Kiev use economic weapons to resolve for a long time already which causes the festering problem of war.
The decision to block all trade except humanitarian — has dealt another blow to the beleaguered Minsk peace process and raised tensions not only in relations with separatists, but also with their patrons in Moscow, which can now receive requests for assistance and markets for the breakaway regions.
President Petro Poroshenko is not eager to isolate the breakaway territories in the region, called Donbass, fearing that such actions will serve as an indirect recognition of their independence and will be the first step towards dividing the country.
However, the idea of ending the trade all the time attracted Ukrainian nationalists, and they saw this as an opportunity to transfer the costs of maintaining the approximately three million people in this Eastern region of the country on the already weakened economy of Russia. In recent weeks, armed gangs of men an old pair of camo has begun to do just that — they began to block trains in the first place the wagons with coal.
These people enjoy considerable support from residents of Ukraine, and their actions helped to move this issue in the first position the national agenda. When in response to the separatist leaders began to nationalize the Ukrainian mines and factories, the President said that now he is forced to act. In his comments, made during the work of the Ukrainian Council of national security (and defense), Mr. Poroshenko minimize the damage that will be caused to the separatist regions as a result of the termination of trade. In his opinion, much more economic harm it will cause Ukraine to lose an important source of cheap fuel.
The Central Bank of Ukraine supports this assertion. According to him, the blockage of trade with the breakaway regions may 1.5% cut planned for this year economic growth could reach 3%.
According to Mr. Poroshenko, the rebel regions, Russian companies can just get the economy under control. Having a common border with the Rostov region, the separatists “can easily get everything they need.”
The government Poroshenko on Wednesday not only assimilated the program of Ukrainian nationalists, but also subjected them to sharp criticism, and the police began to squeeze them out of fortified positions and dissipate. The Ukrainian police have released video of their RAID and the attack on the camp, during which the course went hunting knives, pistols, pump action shotguns, sticks and Kalashnikovs.
The decision of the government on the formalization of the blockade does not Bode well for the peace process in Ukraine, the success of which is a critical first step in the attempts of the administration of the President of trump to improve relations with Russia. President trump has said that he wants to unite with Russia to fight Islamic terrorism, however, its permanent representative to the UN said that the United States will continue to support Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
The requirement for economic reintegration of the separatist regions contained in the agreement on a cease-fire, which is called the Minsk agreement. These agreements were signed in February of 2015, but they are not executed. Under the agreement, Russia must withdraw from Ukraine not recognized by her own armed forces that are diplomatically called “foreign” forces in the region.
The rail blockade has harmed the business interests of the richest Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, who owns coal mines and steel mills in the territories under the control of the separatists and the Ukrainian government. One of the features of this war was that the trains with coal continued to cross the front line for several years, often took place despite the intense shelling. The company of Mr. Akhmetov’s System Capital Management, for obvious reasons, opposed by the volunteers of the blockade, but on Wednesday, its leadership issued a statement in which it was said that property in the rebel territory is no longer under his control. It also pointed out that lawsuits can be added to the Arsenal, which Ukraine uses to put pressure on the breakaway regions.
This statement warns separatists from trying to sell in international markets are produced on captured mines the coal, since in this case we should expect “serious legal consequences for all buyers.”
