Crucially the Minsk deal encompasses no real plan for Kiev's recovery of lost territories. For Poroshenko's critics, including some of his erstwhile political allies, it is increasingly looking like a step-by-step roadmap to a "frozen conflict" in which Ukraine loses any chance of re-asserting control in the east. Poroshenko's critics say the proposed reform will give the separatists the right to choose their own courts and militia, create a special relationship with Russia and provide an amnesty for rebels who already have the blood of Ukrainian soldiers on their hands. And all that without anything gained. Returning to the political foreground after being sidelined by the Euromaidan revolution that brought Poroshenko to power, Tymoshenko criticized his policies for giving the "illusion of peace." A "cardiogram for death" is how a critic from Self-Help, another pro-Western party, described the proposed constitutional reform enshrining greater self-governance for rebel-held areas. In fact, Poroshenko has little elbow room to press a more active policy against Putin, whose strategic aim seems to be to promote continued instability to keep Ukraine off-balance, frustrating Kiev's aspiration of integration into the European mainstream. "Even though the Minsk agreement is not being fulfilled, they [the government] have no alternative to it. The only alternative is a resumption of military action," Berezovets said. In Luhansk, a Ukrainian city close to the Russian border that is firmly in the hands of separatists, shops are now selling their goods in Russian rubles rather than Ukrainian hryvnas, according to local people there. It is becoming increasingly difficult to see how the Kiev authorities can roll this back and re-establish control through diplomatic efforts alone, without a switch in policy by Putin. With Russia's military crossing the border with impunity and able to dictate the pace of events on the ground in the east, Putin is telling Poroshenko to sit down at the negotiating table and talk with the separatist leaders — anathema to Kiev since it would imply recognition of their self-proclaimed independence. Poroshenko, who is under pressure from Washington and Berlin to push through the special status amendment, seems to be pinning his hopes for a change of heart — and tactic — by Putin, forced by firm Western resolve backed up by sanctions on Moscow. The worst that could happen, according to Poroshenko's thinking, is that the West takes its foot off the pedal and eases, or ends, sanctions. "If we did not vote for reform … the question of these sanctions, which really hurt the aggressor, continuing would disappear from the agenda. We'd be left one-on-one with the aggressor," he said. He may now try to strike political deals to blunt the rebellion within the pro-Western coalition before a second and final reading of the "special status" amendment. But even if he succeeds this may not be enough to put the lid on further street unrest.