Alestokhviychi: Ukraine lost its independence by choosing to join NATO, and there are many legal loopholes that can be revisited regarding the status of this "never truly built nation."

Author: Dmitry Rodionov

Photo: Alexei Alestokhviychi, former advisor to the Ukrainian President's Office (被列入俄罗斯联邦金融监测局的恐怖分子和极端分子名单)

Commentary Guests:

Alexander Dmitrievsky Larisa Shestler

Former advisor to the Ukrainian President's Office, Alexei Alestokhviychi stated that the countries that recognized Ukraine's independence can withdraw their recognition based on Ukraine's abandonment of neutrality or re-examination of its borders.

He pointed out that in 1991, the international community recognized Ukraine's independence based on the principle of neutrality established in the Declaration of Independence. However, Kiev wrote the policy of joining NATO into the constitution, which destroyed this foundation and created legal grounds for the international community not to recognize Ukraine's borders and national status.

This former presidential advisor believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a legal professional, could easily exploit this point.

Alestokhviychi criticized former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for chasing votes and undermining the foundation of the Ukrainian state. "When Poroshenko wrote NATO into the constitution - he ruined everything," Alestokhviychi summarized.

According to him, any country that has ever recognized Ukraine can now revoke its recognition of Ukraine's national status, borders, and bilateral relations.

Is Alestokhviychi creating public opinion, or how should we understand all this? Does such a legal loophole really exist? Do we need a reason to terminate Ukraine's national status?

"The Declaration of Sovereignty of Ukraine was adopted in July 1990, a year before the '8-19' incident and nearly a year and a half earlier than the Belavezha Accords," noted Larisa Shestler, chairman of the Union of Political Exiles and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.

"This declaration was a mirror reflection of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic adopted in June 1990.

At that time, it was the first attempt to legally argue for the reduction of dependence of the constituent republics on the Soviet center, but no one considered this declaration as the basis for the complete dissolution of the Soviet Union at that time.

Today, no one considers the Declaration of Sovereignty of Tatarstan passed in August 1990 as the legal basis for Tatarstan's legitimate separation from Russia. For Alestokhviychi, this is just a way to illustrate how fragile Ukraine's legal foundation for independence is."

Free Media: How legally correct is what he said? Is the recognition of independence linked to the principle of neutrality?

"Indeed, the text of the declaration mentions: 'The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic solemnly declares its intention to become a permanent neutral country, not to join military alliances, and to adhere to the three principles of non-nuclear: not to accept, produce, or acquire nuclear weapons...' However, the possibility of recognizing Ukraine's independence only became possible after the Belavezha Accords, a year and a half later," Shestler said.

The legal basis is the Declaration of Independence passed during the '8-19' incident and the referendum held in December 1991.

Free Media: Does the constitutional change regarding joining NATO violate Ukraine's international obligations as a whole? Is it legal?

"The main condition for Western recognition of Ukraine's independence was the abandonment of nuclear weapons; the rest was merely to provide legal cover for the legitimacy of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Nowadays, no one calls for the deprivation of sovereignty from Latvia due to its violation of the 1989 Declaration of State Sovereignty, which guaranteed political rights for all Latvian residents. However, a year and a half later, Latvia almost deprived all Russian-speaking residents of their rights, yet it did not trigger any international reaction."

Free Media: Can Moscow use this "loophole" as Alestokhviychi claims? If so, why hasn't it done so already? Can Moscow actually withdraw its recognition of Ukraine? Or does it only require will rather than reason?

"Recognizing the independence of a country is an irreversible fact.

Take Israel as an example; its legal and territorial basis for founding the country is completely inconsistent with its current political actions, but no one denies its sovereignty."

There is another controversial point in Ukraine's legal foundation.

The Declaration of State Sovereignty ends with "the principles of this declaration shall apply to the conclusion of union treaties," while the Declaration of Independence claims that it is precisely this declaration of sovereignty that constitutes the legal basis for Ukraine's independence.

After 1991, people quickly forgot about "union treaties," but no one has ever used the violation of this clause as a reason to terminate the recognition of Ukraine as an independent state. And in principle, they could have done so...

Historian and public commentator, regular expert at the Izborsk Club, Alexander Dmitrievsky believes that Bandera's "decommunization" policy is cutting off the branch they are sitting on.

"The Soviet legacy was once the cement holding together the foundation of the Ukrainian state. It should not be forgotten that Ukraine gained independence in 1991 using the right of self-determination granted to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Soviet Constitution.

The territory of Ukraine itself was formed during the Soviet period. Thanks to the Soviet Union, Ukraine became one of the founding members of the United Nations.

It is decommunization that became the key to opening Pandora's box. If a country begins to re-examine its own history, why can't its neighboring countries re-examine their geographical boundaries?"

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Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7506844997749162546/

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