Paul Niland: Making sense of Minsk – Decentralization, special status, and federalism
People hold up the Ukrainian flag as they form a human chain on a bridge acrossing the Dnieper River in Kyiv to mark the Day of Unity of Ukraine, on Jan. 22.
Decentralization, special status, and federalism. These terms are three different things, although they are often mistakenly substituted one for another, and some people think one term means another in Ukraine today.
The decentralization debate is heating up again as Ukraine faces a legal deadline to pass a constitutional amendment that gives the so-called Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic "special status" as the Minsk II Agreement stipulates.
