Alfred de Zayas, Ukraina eta Errusia (plus all the Western press)

Podcast: Donetsk and Luhansk, Crimea, Ukraine and international law, Alfred de Zayas http://youtube.com/watch?v=oPe6Z6fVRHM

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

The right of self-determination of the peoples of Donetsk and Lugansk takes precedence over territorial integrity.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Over the past 7 years Ukraine failed to implement the 2015 Minsk agreement, snd the Western media underreported Ukrainian bombardment of civilians in Lugansk and Donetsk.  The situation could not continue indefinitely.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Article 11 of the Minsk Agreement further required Ukraine to adopt  “legislation on the special status of individual areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions“.  This is what is called “internal self-determination”, which would have been a satisfactory solution.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

It is not the aspiration to self-determination by Lugask and Donetsk that constitutes a threat to international peace and security, but the intransigent denial by Ukraine to even consider internal self-determination.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Ukraine ignored the first Minsk agreement of 2014 and repeatedly violated the second of 2015. That is respectively 8 and 7 years.

Uti possidetis contravenes the right of self-determination of peoples.  This means that Ukraine cannot persist in keeping territories which were once part of Tsarist Russia and subsequently part of the Soviet Union.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

It is a jus cogens right of all peoples to determine their own future. This right of self-determination attaches to peoples and is not a prerogative of states to grant or deny.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates the right of self determination for all peoples without exception — and that means also the peoples of Donetsk and Lugansk

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

The fate of the peoples of Donetsk and Lugansk must be left in their own hands.  If anyone harbours any doubt about their preferences (I do not), then conduct a UN organized referendum.

The Western media is conducting a propaganda campaign and selling a narrative that does not correspond to reality. What Russia seeks is not expansion — it seeks guarantees of its national security.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

“Colour revolutions” financed and supported by the West –– with billions of dollars and Euros — and supported by a hybrid information war, are contrary to the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Had Ukraine implemented the Minsk agreements over the past 8 years, had it negotiated with the Donbas authorities, had it not continued to threaten, Russia would not have had to assist the threatened Donbas population.

Alfred de Zayas@Alfreddezayas

Priority must be to return to peace and provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the suffering Ukrainian people and to the Russians of Donetsk and Lugansk.