Bohdan Yaremenko: Belarusian secret services work in Ukraine in Russia's interests

Minsk is the enemy territory for Ukraine, the head of Maidan of Foreign Affairs thinks.

Bohdan Yaremenko is a Ukrainian diplomat, Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of First Class. He worked a consul general of Ukraine in Edinburgh and then in Istanbul. He began his career in the MFA in 1993. He was first deputy director of the international affairs department at the presidential administration in 2009-2010 and later represented Ukraine in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. He has been chairing the charity foundation Maidan of Foreign Affairs since last January.

Bohdan Yaremenko spoke to 112.ua about the Minsk Agreement, relations between Ukraine and Belarus and the difficulties that the new authorities face.

– How can you describe the Minsk Agreement? Is it useful or harmful for us?

– The [Russian] FSB and the KGB of Belarus carry out joint meetings. They have common plans and common reports. Even in our diplomatic bodies, our Belarusian colleagues work in the interests of their Russian counterparts, fulfilling their orders. Their work on Ukrainian issues is in Russia's interests. Thy have common military command, military and defence plans. It means they are military and political allies. This is the highest degree of relations between independent states. Thinking that it is a neutral country, we actually hold negotiations on the enemy territory. Minsk is the worst option. The only thing it gives is the return of Lukashenka to high politics. He uses it quite effectively to solve his problems. I cannot understand why Ukraine needs it. We shouldn't have held talks in Belarus. This is flirting with the dictator, help to the dictator. We are the country that had a revolution, and it is mean for us to play into the hands of the leader of the country with the death penalty, disappeared and killed opposition members and jailed opposition activists. Only such dictators as Lukashenka visit him.

The Minsk Agreement expires on 31 December 2015. To all appearances, it cannot be fulfilled by the end of this period, because the first two requirements – the ceasefire and the withdrawal of weapons – haven't been fulfilled. The rest is commitments of Ukraine: to adopt a number of laws in coordination with militants on how militants can live in Ukraine, on how we can elect them through local authorities, etc. There is the declaration of the heads of state besides the Minsk Agreement. We undertook the commitments that threaten Ukraine as a state, namely how the authorities will work in these territories after their return to Ukraine with the aim to decentralise them, take independent decisions on the language, appoint law-enforcement officials with the consent of the local authorities. This is more than a federation. This is more like a confederation.