A New Peace Effort Is Needed in East Ukraine

For the last three years, the West's approach to the conflict in eastern Ukraine has been through the Minsk agreements. Now Russia says a new Ukrainian law buries the deal. In reality, Minsk has been dead for a while -- in large part because Germany and France, which helped negotiate it, have done nothing to enforce it. It's time they took a more active role.

The Ukrainian bill, submitted by President Petro Poroshenko last fall and passed by parliament on Thursday, defines Donetsk and Luhansk as "temporarily occupied territories," names Russia as the occupying power and the "people's republics" established in eastern Ukraine as Russian occupation administrations. It doesn't refer to the Minsk agreements at all. Anyone cooperating with the occupation administrations will be subject to criminal charges under Ukrainian law. Of all the documents they issue, only birth and death certificates will be recognized. Russia alone is declared liable for any damage to people and property in the occupied territories. The Ukrainian president gets de facto absolute powers to conduct any kind of military and law enforcement operations there without formally introducing martial law -- something certain pro-European lawmakers consider unconstitutional.