The referendum on the peace plan: what is the hidden danger?
фотоколаж: ОПОРА
The country’s president does not rule out the possibility of holding a nationwide referendum to approve a twenty-point peace agreement to end the conflict. Such an initiative could be implemented simultaneously with the elections, with plans to submit the agreement for ratification by parliament or hold a national vote.
Political scientist Volodymyr Tsybulko expressed serious reservations about such plans on the air of “Pryamoy”.
He noted that the main problem is the lack of publicity of the twenty points of the peace plan that are to be put to a referendum. The political scientist suggested that one of the foreign parties may avoid ratifying the agreement and security commitments in its legislature, which makes the upcoming referendum meaningless for obtaining real guarantees.
“We care about security guarantees, we care about mechanisms that will be automatically activated in the event that the first armed citizen of the Russian Federation crosses the demarcation line. That is, without any consultations, thousands of NATO planes automatically take off and fly towards Russia. We don’t need other mechanisms,” Tsybulko emphasized.
He also expressed fears that the authorities may seek to “smash under the guise of a referendum some awkward agreement that will be no better than the Budapest Memorandum.”
The political scientist recalled that a previous similar memorandum was not ratified by the parliaments of the signatory countries, which led to its ineffectiveness in providing security guarantees.
On the eve of the meeting, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced that if the issue of territories cannot be agreed upon during the negotiations, the entire peace plan may be put to a referendum . The Head of State emphasized that the issue of territories is the most difficult in the peace plan, which states that in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, the contact line is fixed at the location of the troops on the date of the agreement – that is, “we stand where we stand.”
As a reminder, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the people’s deputies to develop a bill on the possibility of holding elections during martial law. The initiative does not involve preparation for the elections, but was a reaction to statements by the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
Later, during a conversation with journalists, the head of state declared his readiness to stop hostilities along the current line of contact, the need to ensure the security of the elections , and the continuation of negotiations with the participation of the United States. He also reported on the failure to receive the promised volumes of air defense systems from partners and questioned Russia’s readiness to end the war.
By the way, earlier political scientist Volodymyr Tsybulko named four realistic scenarios for elections during the war . However, in his opinion, all of them are risky and can lead to unpredictable consequences.
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