Donbas needs martial law

It looks like war or military conflict, but it’s officially called the ATO - the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas. That ATO continues since March, 2014 and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko can’t say when ATO will be finished, though earlier he said about necessity of short duration of the ATO. “ATO must last days, not months”, - the presidential candidate Poroshenko said before presidential election-2014 on the TV. But the ATO is still lasting…And martial law can give real possibility to Ukrainian army, police and security service to finish effectively and quickly this ATO. Martial law may be short-term and put into place in Donbas by Ukrainian President and voted by Ukrainian Parliament. But P. Poroshenko is against announcing of the martial law in Donbas, and, as he explained in public nearly two weeks ago, he fears not to get credit from International Monetary Fund for Ukraine in the case of decraled martial law in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. And maybe, here are other reasons of Poroshenko’s refusal to announce martial law in Donbas. According to Ukrainian Constitution, when martial law is declared in the country or in some its territory, Ukrainian state power can’t change Ukraine’s Constitution and can’t hold any election. And President Poroshenko wants to change Ukrainian Constitution very much, that’s why he had given his project of changes of Ukrainian Constitution to the deputies of Ukraine’s Parliament on 26^th June 2014. Poroshenko and the majority of national deputies also desire to hold extraordinary parliamentary election in autumn this year. Of course, Ukraine needs a new complement of the deputies in Ukrainian Parliament, because present national deputies discredited themselves too much. Besides it, Ukrainian state power can define a term of the martial law and can hold new parliamentary election, for example, in November or in December.

Because it’s some paradoxical situation in Ukraine. Ukrainian politicians, including President Poroshenko, name “war” all what is happening in Donbas, but officially declare that it’s only some ATO. There aren’t some unknown terrorists, but persons who are armed, financed and supported by Russian state power and those, who came from Russian Federation in Donbas, and Ukrainian state power has many evidences of it. First of all, when it’s called ATO, so then professionals (such as security service, military men, policemen) must take part in the ATO and other citizens of Ukraine can be volunteers in the special army or police battalions, if they voluntarily wish to take part in the ATO. But indeed military commissariats recruit Ukrainian men across the country into soldier battalions without asking their wishes. It’s huge paradox: three decrees about partial mobilization were signed by interim President Oleksandr Turchynov on 17^th March and 6^th May and by President Petro Poroshenko on 21^st  July 2014, though martial law wasn’t put into place in Donbas. And in fact all three times it was only military mobilization of Ukrainians, it wasn’t mobilization of Ukrainian economy and of all branches of state life, as it had to be according to Ukrainian law about mobilization. But from the ATO beginning present Ukrainian state power’s real crimes and mistakes are many occurrences of the ATO organization, when ATO participants were departed in the ATO zone without necessary weapons, body armors, another arming, military technics and often without any experience of the service in the army and/or without long-term military training before the departure there. It’s also shameful tendency during the whole ATO that the same brigades and battalions of Ukrainian army stay in the dangerous locations in the ATO zone over 45 days without any rotation, and often without reinforcement in very needful moments of the battles against pro-Russian terrorists. And if Ukraine’s state power wants to win all that pro-Russian terrorists, so must to care about Ukrainian citizens who fight for Ukraine.

In the end. On 8^th August 2014 the United Nations named total quantity of the victims in Donbas, including civil population and both war sides – 1543 dead and 4396 injured since the starting of that military conflict in Donbas. Very large numbers. I wish peace in Ukraine…