Ukraine’s foreign ministry has rejected French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal to consult Donbas residents about their future. Spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi pointed to the independence referendum and condemned votes held under occupation. Kyiv’s response adds a direct diplomatic objection to a dispute already involving France’s foreign minister ahead of next year’s presidential election.
Geopolitics··Night
Kyiv cites the independence referendum
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi on November 9 rejected French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal to ask Donbas residents which side of the border they wanted to live on. Tykhyi said Ukrainians had settled their borders in the 1991 independence referendum.[1], [2]
He argued that referendums held under occupation serve annexation rather than popular choice, and that no democratic country would accept that procedure for its own borders.[1]
Mélenchon proposed consulting Donbas residents
Mélenchon leads France Unbowed, a French left-wing political movement, and made the proposal at his Saturday campaign rally. He said a peace settlement involving territorial concessions should first seek the consent of those concerned. His remarks concerned Donbas, the region in eastern Ukraine partly occupied by Russian forces, whose residents he said should decide whether to be Ukrainian or Russian. Kyiv’s Monday intervention was a direct response to those comments, following a weekend of criticism in France.[1]
French politicians clash before the presidential election
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot accused Mélenchon on Sunday of speaking for the Kremlin. Mélenchon rejected that accusation. Bastien Lachaud, a France Unbowed lawmaker, separately supported continuing assistance to Kyiv until a peace agreement was reached. The exchanges come ahead of France’s presidential election next year. The proposal and the responses are political positions; Ukraine’s announcement contained no decision to hold a referendum or transfer territory.[1]
