"Even more senseless and contradictory than the Minsk agreements": Serhiy Harmash assessed the “28-point” plan on ending the war
Political expert and former member of the Ukrainian delegation in the Minsk TCG Serhiy Harmash called the 28-point document published in the media legally illiterate and something that cannot be considered a real plan for settling the war. He said this in an interview with OstroV.
“The first thing I want to say is: don’t perceive this ‘plan’ emotionally. This is not the first plan from the Trump administration, and we don’t even remember where those previous plans are. Second – when reviewing any action plan, before evaluating it, you need to look at how realistic its implementation is at all”, - the expert noted.
According to him, the document falls apart under criticism already from the first point, which declares “confirmation of Ukraine’s sovereignty”.
“So, the first point is ‘Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed’. How is that? What does ‘confirmed’ mean? Will we be accepted into the UN again? Or will the US revoke its official recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty from December 25, 1991, and recognize us again? Even russia does not de-jure deny the existence of the sovereign state of Ukraine…”, - Harmash stressed, adding that the next points of the document effectively deny the declared sovereignty by proposing to limit the Ukrainian army and determine Ukraine’s internal and external policy.
He also called absurd the second point about a “comprehensive non-aggression agreement” between Ukraine, the russian federation and “Europe”.
“First of all – what is ‘Europe’? Perhaps the European Union is meant. But not all European countries are part of it. What about the United Kingdom, for example? Then, what need does Ukraine have to conclude a non-aggression agreement with the European Union? And the main question – has ‘Europe’ been asked whether it intends to conclude such an agreement at all?” - he emphasized.
Serhiy Harmash also drew attention to the vague formulations about “reliable security guarantees”.
“What does ‘reliable’ mean? What are the criteria for their reliability? The Budapest Memorandum was once considered reliable too…”, - the expert said.
Separately, he noted that most of the document’s requirements contradict the Constitution of Ukraine, particularly proposals to amend the Basic Law during martial law and ideas to transfer some territories to russia.
“There is no legal mechanism in Ukraine for withdrawing troops and transferring territory to another state. Anyone who gives such an order will sooner or later be convicted of treason. Moreover – such an order is illegal, and according to the Constitution no one is obliged to follow it…”, - he noted.
Harmash called even more absurd the provisions on “de-facto recognition” of Crimea, the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as russian, as well as the formulations about Ukraine’s “invasion” “into russia” in case it restores control over its own territory.
“And here is a truly ‘brilliant’ formulation: ‘If Ukraine unjustifiably launches a missile at moscow or Saint Petersburg, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid’! ‘Unjustifiably’ – how is that? What are the criteria of ‘justification’? And why only moscow and Saint Petersburg? And Rostov or Nizhny Novgorod – are those allowed?”, Harmash added.
In conclusion, he described the document as a set of unrealistic demands with no practical significance.
“This is not a plan – this is a putin’s wish-list written down by Witkoff on a napkin from the words of Kirill Dmitriev, supplemented by Trump’s wish-lists to get 50 billion dollars from us. And the text is so absurd that it’s obvious – implementing it in any structured form is impossible. This text is even more senseless and contradictory than the Minsk agreements. It’s simply unrealistic. Just like signing it on Mars”, - the expert summarized.