Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding _among other conditions_ that Ukraine change its constitution to enshrine neutrality and thus refrain from joining the European Union or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
According to Fabián Novak in his work Neutrality in contemporary international lawneutrality can adopt the following modalities:
- occasional neutrality The one that a State discretionally adopts in the face of a specific armed conflict from which it wants to remain on the sidelines. By declaring itself neutral, it assumes a legal regime that, while recognizing certain rights, imposes on it a series of obligations. These revolve around two fundamental ideas: abstention and impartiality.
- permanent neutrality The same rights and obligations that the Hague Conventions establish for occasional neutrality are applicable to permanent neutrality. The difference is that the permanently neutral State must be much more rigorous in fulfilling its obligations of abstention and impartiality. Above all, in matters of impartiality, it is required that it avoid alliances or commitments that could lead it to lose its neutrality in the future. The Vatican State is located at this point.
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unaligned state
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (2010-2014) introduced in the Constitution the non-alignment of his country in military blocswhether Western or Eastern.
Yanukovych was ousted on February 22, 2014, after facing protests that broke out on November 21, 2013, when his government refused to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union. In the revolution known as Euromaidan, more than a hundred people died.
After the overthrow of Yanukovych, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March. and the following month in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk the pro-Russian uprising took place.
Ukraine remained non-aligned until December 2014, when the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) approved give up that status.
The legislative amendments were proposed by the then Ukrainian President Petró Poroshenko (2014-2019), and directly included a rule on the cooperation with NATO “to meet the criteria necessary for membership in this organization.”
In addition, the law on the principles of national security of Ukraine incorporated a precept according to which the integration of Ukraine into the European political, economic and legal space in order to become a member of the European Union is among the priority national interests. and NATO.
In the Poroshenko document with which he accompanied his initiatives, it was argued that the “Russian aggression against Ukraine”, the “illegal annexation” of Crimea and “military intervention in the eastern regions” force us to seek more effective guarantees of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”.
The Ukrainian decision was received negatively by Russia, which considers the mere possibility that NATO could bring its military structures closer to Russian borders as a threat to its national security.
Before the Rada vote in December 2014, then-Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned that the neighboring nation’s renunciation of its non-aligned status “is, in fact, an application to join NATO, which makes Ukraine a potential enemy of Russia”. The Ukrainian decision will have “negative consequences,” he added.
Ukraine in all this time, despite the progress of the talks, failed to enter NATO.
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On February 24, Putin ordered the military invasion of Ukraine under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking population of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, and demanded the demilitarization and “denazification” of the neighboring country.
The Kremlin declared that Russia will stop its military offensive in Ukraine if Kiev accepts its conditions, which include the recognition of Crimea as a Russian territory, the independence of the Donbas, the pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the amendment to its Constitution to renounce its membership in “any bloc”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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