KIEV (Sputnik) — The draft legislation was announced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in mid-June. The text of the bill is unknown, but according to Ukrainian lawmakers, if adopted, the new law would recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR) as Russia-occupied territories, and turn the so-called counterterrorism operation in Donbass into a military one.
"For the first time at the legislative level, the notion that Russia is an aggressor country will be introduced," Lutsenko said Monday, as quoted by the 5 Kanal broadcaster.
According to the lawmaker, the draft bill is 99.9 percent complete and ready for registration in the parliament.
Lutsenko added that the draft bill on the reintegration of Donbass has a direct link to Article 51 of the UN Charter on Self-Defense.
"It means that Ukraine has a right to self-defense. And again – this is not war, this is self-defense. It is for the International Monetary Fund to give us the means, this is for investors," the lawmaker added.
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Russian upper house's Foreign Affairs Committee, said that Kiev's plans to adopt a new legislation labeling Moscow an "aggressor" could be explained by the absence of any evidence, proving Russia's alleged aggression.
"Kiev's intention to call Russia an 'aggressor country' on the legislative level paradoxically shows that Kiev lacks sufficient arguments for it… And when there is neither proof, nor certainty, one has to adopt laws, stipulating who is considered to be an aggressor, and who is not," Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page, adding that if there was a real act of aggression, the aggressor would be obvious to everyone.
