The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense has agreed to remove the clause on the possible severance of diplomatic relations with Russia from the bill on Donbas, although the committee has not yet made a formal decision on the matter, committee secretary Ivan Vinnyk of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc said.
"We have agreed based on a consensus that this [the possible severance of diplomatic relations with Russia] is solely within the purview of the executive branch, in order to preserve the clear separation [of functions] between the government branches and their independence," Vinnyk said.
"We won't tell the executive branch how they should abide by the law. The law will assign aggressor status to Russia. In these conditions, it is obvious that the executive branch will sever the diplomatic relations in order to carry out the law. We've decided that we won't tell the Cabinet about this," Vinnyk said when asked whether the bill retained a clause on the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia.
