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Ukraine needs to give its regions veto power over future membership in NATO and the European Union to finally end the uprising by pro-Russian separatists in the east, a former envoy of President Vladimir Putin said.

The easternmost Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where Russian is the main language, should also be granted greater control over their security forces, similar to the devolution of power in the Balkans after the breakup of Yugoslavia, as well as their finances, Vladimir Lukin said in an interview in Moscow.

Eastern Ukraine, or most of it, as far as Im aware, doesnt want to be part of NATO, said Lukin, who represented Russia at February talks in Kiev between then-President Viktor Yanukovych and opposition leaders who later ousted him. Russia is also against this, but the main thing is that eastern Ukraine is opposed and has made it abundantly clear, he said, stressing that he was speaking in a personal capacity.

In those talks, which were also attended by the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland, Yanukovych agreed to hold early presidential elections by December and form a national unity government. Within hours, though, the threat of a violent overthrow forced him to flee Kiev for Russia in what Putin later called a far-right coup.

Putin and Yanukovychs successor, Petro Poroshenko, last week reached an agreement that paved the way for a Sept. 5 cease-fire accord that included vague pledges to decentralize power. Putin has railed against the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949 in part to counter the Soviet Union, and cited concern over neighboring Ukraines possible membership in the U.S.-led military bloc when he annexed Crimea in March.

Poroshenko, 48, has indicated hes ready to grant more autonomy in the east, though he hasnt provided details. He said hell send a draft law on temporary self-governance in certain districts of Luhansk and Donetsk to parliament next week, while ruling out independence for those regions.

Lukin, 77, Russias ambassador to the U.S. in 1992-1994, said one way to ensure that Donetsk and Luhansk have the ability to block Ukraines membership in NATO, as well as the EU, is to introduce constitutional changes requiring that such actions be supported by a majority of the populations of each region.

The guarantees for eastern Ukraine are very simple, Lukin said in the Russian capital. Each region must have the right to express its will. This is my personal view, of course. Its not up to me.

Lukin, a founder of the pro-democracy Yabloko political party in the 1990s, stepped down as Russias human rights commissioner in March after serving two Kremlin-appointed five-year terms. He helped free international observers held by the rebels in Ukraine in May and June, on the first occasion traveling to Slovyansk in person to negotiate their freedom. Hes currently the president of the Russian Paralympic Committee.

Introducing direct elections for governor and ending the current practice of appointment by the central government could also help ensure the peace, Lukin said. That could be accompanied by allowing the regions to retain most of the taxes they collect, he said, since Donetsk and Luhansk, which make up the industrial and coal-producing heartland known as Donbas, believe theyre giving more to Kiev than theyre getting.

Originally posted here:
Ukraine Rebels Need NATO Veto to End War: Ex-Putin Envoy