Recently, we have increasingly heard statements from the Ukrainian party regarding Kiev’s intention to redraft the Minsk Agreements, a statement from the DPR Ministry of Foreign Affairs of February 2 reads.
Yesterday’s statements by the Assistant to the President of Ukraine are of the same kind, which doesn’t suit Mr. Yermak at all, because he is an official representative of the Ukrainian state at the level of advisers in the Normandy Format. It would seem that a person, who regularly meets with his colleagues from Russia, Germany and France to discuss the situation with the Minsk Agreements’ implementation, should know that the Package of Measures had been approved by the UN Security Council. Moreover, the President of Ukraine confirmed his obligations under this document at the December meeting of the Norman Four countries’ leaders. Accordingly, Mr. Yermak, as well as the entire Ukrainian leadership, have to accept the fact that any revision of the Minsk Agreements is neither possible nor expedient.
We also advise that the authorities of Ukraine arrange an open session in the capital for joint reading of the Package of Measures text for all those who like to comment on the Minsk process, but, unfortunately, are still poorly versed in it. Perhaps this will help Mr. Yermak and his fellow commentators to figure out for themselves the sequence of paragraphs’ implementation under this document.
We once again remind that special local elections in Donbass can take place only after all legal aspects of special status have been elaborated and agreed upon with representatives of the Republic on a permanent basis. In particular, it is about unblocking the law on the special status of Donbass through the Steinmeier Formula’s implementation, the development of acts and agreements arising from this law, along with the special status’s enshrinement in the Constitution. All these provisions are required by Paragraph 11 of the Package of Measures, which was signed by both parties to the conflict — Kiev and the Republics. This document has also been confirmed by the Normandy Four leaders, including Zelensky.
We have nothing against Mr. Ermak’s illusions that Ukraine will manage to coordinate all the legal aspects of the special status with us up to October. However, it is difficult for us to imagine how the representatives of Ukraine will succeed, as so far Kiev has not even made a single attempt to launch activities to integrate the Steinmeier Formula into Ukrainian legislation, and this, in fact, is the initial stage of the work that needs to be done before talking about special elections.