Yesterday’s statement by the Ukrainian representatives is a blatant lie, that in Minsk they allegedly proposed forming a subgroup for border issues, the Ukrainian side never brought forward anything of the kind, DPR Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova stated.
“Such extremely dishonest methods of the current negotiators from Kiev are very similar to Poroshenko’s policy, which the Ukrainian delegation in Minsk has been practicing for several years now, trying to twist the logic of the Complex of Measures to get control over the border without doing anything to grant Donbass a special status.
However, no matter how the Ukrainian authorities, either the former ones or the new, try to alter the meaning of the Minsk Agreements to their advantage, they will not succeed. Instead of wasting time on completely absurd and detached from reality statements, the representatives of Ukraine should once again read the Complex of Measures, which clearly states that the transfer of control over the border is the final step, whose implementation is possible only after a full-blown political settlement. Therefore, if Kiev is truly committed to the peacebuilding plan enshrined in the Complex of Measures, it is high time they started implementing their political commitments under the Minsk Agreements, including those that the Ukrainian president reaffirmed in follow-up of the meeting in the Normandy format to work out and agree with the representatives of the Republics on all legal aspects of the special status of Donbass.
This involves working in coordination with us on amendments to the law on the special status of Donbass, laws, bylaws and agreements arising therefrom, as well as enshrining the special status in the Constitution. So far, we have not seen even the slightest intention of Kiev to engage in constructive work to fulfil the instructions from the guarantor countries’ leaders in the Minsk Agreements and its commitments under the document approved by the UN Security Council,” Natalya Nikonorova said.