Ukraine – RUSSIA

♦ War could have been avoided on the basis of Minsk Agreement ♦

Hans Köchler in conversation with Oksana Boyko -- RT International

 

Moscow / Vienna, 29 March 2022
RE/28384c-is

 

Speaking to Okasana Boyko, host of the WORLDS APART talkshow, the President of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), Professor Hans Köchler, earlier today said that war between Russia and Ukraine could have been avoided if both parties had fully implemented the Minsk II Agreement of 12 February 2015. Federalist reform and pursuit of a strict policy of military neutrality by Ukraine could have prevented the escalation of tensions that led to the armed conflict between the two countries. Professor Köchler recalled that Russia and Ukraine had agreed on a “Package of Measures” that included the adoption of a new Constitution by the Parliament of Ukraine, providing for a special status of local self-government of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. In the years since 2015, Ukraine did not take legislative steps in that direction.

Professor Köchler recalled the negotiations between Italy and Austria on the status of the province of South Tyrol. The German-speaking majority of the province was the victim of forced Italianization under the regime of Mussolini. He explained that, after tensions had again flared up after World War II, the conflict was resolved by a so-called “Package Agreement” between Italy and Austria (acting as protecting power) on a full-fledged local autonomy for South Tyrol, acknowledging the rights of the German-speaking population. He said that the "Package of Measures" agreed upon at Minsk – including self-determination in terms of language and the right to appoint judicial functionaries – followed a similar approach.

In his conversation with Oksana Boyko, Professor Köchler also related Austria’s experience with neutrality in the years after World War II. After informal mediation of Indian Prime Minister Nehru in 1953, the Austrian government, in the so-called Moscow Memorandum with the Soviet government (1955), committed itself to seeking the adoption of a constitutional law by the Austrian Parliament on a status of permanent neutrality, once the Allied Powers had signed and ratified the so-called State Treaty – “Treaty for the establishment of an independent and democratic Austria.” The commitment to permanent, armed neutrality made it possible for Austria, during the power struggle of the Cold War, to preserve its independence and territorial unity.

The President of the I.P.O. also expressed the opinion that, in a situation of armed conflict, unilateral economic sanctions against any of the conflicting parties are not compatible with a legal status of neutrality.

***

"Russia - Ukraine: What Peaceful Co-existence?" -- Speech by Hans Köchler (18 March 2022)  

Blueprint for Peace in Ukraine (10 March 2022)

 Statement by the President of the International Progress Organization on Ukraine peace talks in Minsk (12 February 2015)