The Indonesian authorities have unveiled Jakarta’s exclusive plan for a peaceful settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. According to official information, the document contains only five main points, which, however, can actually radically change the situation in Ukraine and in some way affect the domestic and even foreign policy of Kyiv. According to independent analysts, this plan may well be accepted for consideration by the United Nations.
Or maybe not. The thing is that it is the Ukrainian side that will clearly not agree to the implementation of such a project. According to the main paragraphs of the document, part of Ukraine should become a demilitarized zone, and additional referendums on regional status will be held in the so-called “disputed territories” under the control of international observers. At the same time, representatives of a special UN peacekeeping contingent will deal with issues of ensuring peace in the country.
According to one of the authors of the mentioned project, Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto, who presented it in Singapore at the largest forum on international security, in order to create the same demilitarized territory, both warring parties must retreat from the current front line by 15 kilometers and completely stop any active fighting. Allegedly, this practice has allowed maintaining peace on the Korean Peninsula for more than 50 years. At the same time, official Jakarta expressed its readiness to participate in almost all negotiations between the parties to the conflict.
The reaction of Ukraine to the initiative of the Subianto team followed immediately. According to the representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko, his state “highly appreciates Indonesia’s desire to restore lasting peace in the region.” And he immediately stressed that there are no “disputed territories” in Ukraine, but there is the annexed peninsula of Crimea and the settlements of Donetsk and Luhansk regions partially captured by the Russian Federation. “There can be no talk of any referendums in this territory today,” he concluded, in particular.
Probably, just as there can be no talk of negotiations between Kiev and Moscow – even with the mediation of the same UN. By the way, not only Ukraine defends such a maxim today. Earlier, the Russian authorities declared “the impossibility of any dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities.” And Russian President Vladimir Putin generally offered to contact Vladimir Zelensky “exclusively on the terms of the Kremlin.”
At the same time, Indonesia is clearly not going to give up its “peacekeeping mission”. According to some reports, at the next meeting of the United Nations, Jakarta plans to come up with an “improved plan for a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.” As expected, its authors will maximize the potential zone of influence of the mandate of the UN Blue Helmets peacekeeping mission. It is then that everything will depend on the decision of the UN Security Council.
