February 12 marked the fifth anniversary of the signing of the second Minsk Agreements designed to settle the armed conflict in Donbass. DPR Foreign Affairs Minister and plenipotentiary to the Minsk talks Natalia Nikonorova spoke in an interview with a correspondent of the Official Website of the Donetsk People’s Republic about the role played by this instrument in the life of the Republic.
“The Minsk Agreements have served their major purpose of reducing the number of attacks and affected civilians. The Minsk Agreements contributed to the termination of the acute phase of hostilities. Though, the intensity of AFU’s shelling civilian infrastructure, social facilities and residential buildings has increased upon the change of president in Ukraine. And we do not see Zelensky’s desire for peace on a practical level.
Subject to the implementation of the additional measures agreed upon in Minsk, the permanent ceasefire should not be violated. If this happens, persons must be identified who will be held responsible for giving the order to open fire,” the Head of the Foreign Office said.
Nikonorova also noted that two major prisoners exchanged had taken place through the negotiation process in Minsk.
“The Contact Group in Minsk verified and agreed upon all the lists of detained persons. In 2017, the exchange procedure was worked out in less detail due to the lack of practice and understanding of the process, and last year we managed to get the Ukrainian party to undertake written obligations to terminate the persecution of the people who had returned home within the exchange,” she added.
The plenipotentiary emphasized that the Republics’ position in the negotiations remains extremely transparent as no one requires special conditions other than those specified in the Minsk Agreements.
“It is much easier for the two mediators in the Minsk process — representatives of the OSCE SMM and the Russian Federation — to negotiate with us. We are conducting an honest, transparent and principled dialogue,” Nikonorova concluded.