KYIV. Feb 15 (Interfax) - The Russian State Duma's resolution to immediately forward an appeal to the Russian president to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk (DPR) and Luhansk (LPR) People's Republics effectively "buries" the Minsk Agreements for Donbas, Serhiy Rakhmanin, a member of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada's Holos faction, said.
"What does it mean for Ukraine? I hope that, first, Ukrainian diplomats will promptly react and will make a statement that it means that the Russian Federation has effectively buried the Minsk Agreements. It means that Ukraine has all the grounds it needs to reject the Minsk accord and to quit them at last. It is necessary to work out a mechanism that will allow us to no longer refer to this document in principle and to exempt ourselves from all the risks and dangers linked to this document," Rakhmanin told reporters on Tuesday when commenting on the State Duma's decision.
European Solidarity faction MP Mykola Kniazhytsky, in turn, has said he sees the State Duma's decision as Russia's withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements.
"I think that the decision in and of itself severs the Minsk accords. Russia is effectively pulling out of all Minsk agreements, and it is necessary to look for new formats, and our chance to return to the occupied territories depends on the leadership," Kniazhytsky said.
Dmytro Lubinets, head of the Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Human Rights, De-Occupation, and Reintegration, said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin grants the Duma's appeal for recognizing the DPR and LPR, this would automatically mean Russia's withdrawal from the Minsk and Normandy negotiating formats.
"We are waiting now to see what Putin's position is. If he signs this, in my view, Russia is thus pulling out of the Minsk format and automatically from the Normandy format. At the same time, this certainly doesn't weaken our position, because we're showing the whole world all the time that we stand ready to abide by both Minsk and other of our obligations," Lubinets told Interfax.
If the Russian president upholds the Duma's decision on the DPR and LPR, Ukraine's European partners will not object to strengthening sanctions pressure on Russia, Lubinets said. "I think even Germany would be surprised by Russia's position. Perhaps this would open a window of opportunity now as concerns the legal blockage of Nord Stream 2's launch," Lubinets said.
Dmytro Razumkov, former Rada chairman and now head of the inter-faction association Reasonable Politics, proposed that Ukraine appeal to its international partners over the State Duma's decision on the DPR and LPR. "We'll certainly appeal also to our international partners to prevent this," Razumkov told Interfax.
He said he was sure that Ukraine would not recognize either this decision or other actions with regard to the DPR and LPR.
Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the chief of the Ukrainian presidential office, said the Duma's appeal to the president to recognize the Donbas republics is "an escalatory action," which would complicate the situation in Europe.
"Naturally, the democratic society should immediately assess and respond to Russia's withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements and any politico-legal steps in the interests of the occupation groups. It could only be regretted that Moscow has resorted to this escalatory action, which only complicates the situation in Europe," Podolyak told Interfax.
"Even the very fact of bringing up the matter of recognizing the occupation groups in the ORDLO [the DPR and LPR] is a step toward ruining the Minsk documents," Podolyak said.
"If Russia has decided to pull out of the Minsk Agreements de jure and de facto, this would only show definitively that it is precisely the Russian side that bears responsibility for the absence of significant progress in the negotiating process on putting an end to the war in Donbas," he said.
Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas also commented on the Duma's decision concerning the DPR and LPR. "If formalized, would constitute additional territorial claims on Ukraine," Maasikas wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.