Moscow sought to hold elections in the occupied territories of the Donbas whilst Russian troops were present, in order to legitimise the occupation and gain leverage over the whole of Ukraine. This was stated by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum and Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016, in an interview with “Ukrainska Pravda”.
“The greatest achievement of the Minsk Agreements is that they were not implemented on Russia’s terms,” Yatsenyuk emphasised.
He explained that holding elections without the withdrawal of Russian troops would have amounted to the de facto legalisation of the occupation. According to Moscow’s plan, this would have enabled Russia to influence Ukrainian state institutions and determine the country’s political course.
The former prime minister drew a direct parallel between Russia’s demands during the implementation of the Minsk Agreements and the current demands for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas.
“To me, that would be equivalent to the decision now being taken unilaterally to withdraw from the territory of the Donetsk region. It’s exactly the same,” he said.
According to Yatsenyuk, the Kremlin’s strategic goal has never been limited to individual Ukrainian territories. Russia seeks to establish control over the whole of Ukraine; therefore, concessions that legitimise the occupation and strengthen Russian influence over Ukrainian politics cannot form the basis for a lasting peace.
Yatsenyuk also recalled that Ukraine had agreed to a political settlement on condition that control over the occupied territories was restored. In particular, elections were to take place after the withdrawal of Russian troops, with the participation of the OSCE and under Ukrainian control.
“The Russians wanted to use us to legalise the annexation and then show the whole world: ‘We told you so, these are historically Russian territories’,” he noted.