Representatives of Ukraine continue to manipulate items of the Complex of Measures characteristically, trying to change the sequence and priority of their implementation. By stating that security issues should be addressed before political issues, Kiev attempts to distort the concept of the Minsk Agreements to escape their fulfilment in their original form that they were signed by the parties to the conflict within Ukraine and by mediators of its settlement and approved by the UN Security Council.
We strongly recommend that the Ukrainian negotiators reread the text of the Complex of Measures as carefully as possible. This will help them see that the settlement on the political and security tracks should be carried out simultaneously. Moreover, the content of items of this document makes it clear that the transfer of control over the border is the final step for resolving the conflict, which can be carried out only if all the previous political steps are taken: the adoption of standing laws on the special status in accordance with the parameters enshrined in the Complex of Measures, entrenchment of the special status in the Constitution and ensuring the prevention of prosecution and punishment for people involved in the conflict. And this is an absolutely characteristic and logical sequence of fulfilment of the Complex of Measures, because the conflict in Donbass itself occurred precisely due to political contradictions between the parties, for whose settlement the Minsk Agreements were signed and the Minsk format of negotiation was created.
We call on the Ukrainian authorities to stop retransmitting the wrong interpretation of the Minsk Agreements. Instead, it is necessary that they finally begin to fulfill their commitments, with the mandatory coordination of actions and initiatives with representatives of the Republics and exactly in the sequence that is enshrined in the Complex of Measures.