In Kyiv, on July 15–16, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland prevailed on President Petro Poroshenko and parliamentary leaders to accept constitutional liabilities toward the Russian-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk territories. Nuland’s intervention achieved its goal, but not without a severe political commotion in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president and parliamentary leaders had already made public their version of the relevant constitutional amendment on July 1, for submission to parliament on July 16. Their version fell carefully short of committing Ukraine to legitimize the Donetsk and Luhansk secessionists. Nuland, however, inspired some urgent night-time editing of that constitutional amendment, for submission to …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation