“Ukraine, both under President Poroshenko and under the present government, has chosen the longest possible delaying tactics and sometimes even openly sabotages its obligations under the Minsk Agreements.
A striking example of this serves the fact that, in fact, over the 5 years there can be considered completed only the 13th of the 13 Paragraphs of the Package of Measures, the one providing for the establishment of specialized working groups to enhance the Contact Group activities. But we just cannot see any enhancement as all our proposals for the Minsk Agreements’ implementation are either completely ignored by Kiev or distorted to the edge, perverting the meaning of the documents signed in Minsk.
It should be understood that certain progress has been achieved by and large in each of the negotiation fields over the past five years. In 2017 and 2019 there were held two major detainees swaps. As part of the work of the subgroup on economic issues, there was agreed with the Ukrainian party and launched the schedule for conducting an international audit of Voda Donbasss Company UE.
In addition to that, last year at the Minsk venue it became possible to reach an a permanent ceasefire agreement. However, although this development allowed to reduce the number of attacks, they have not yet been ceased completely. The situation is the same with the coordination of additional measures to control the ceasefire – this in itself is a clearly constructive shift, but Kiev does not properly implement these agreements.
But the most disturbing aspect in the Ukrainian party’s reluctance to launch a constructive dialogue on political issues, on the long-term resolution of which the successful conflict settlement depends. Five years after the signing of the Package of Measures, little has changed in this respect. The only real breakthrough can be considered the fact that the Steinmeier’s Formula was finally agreed and set down on paper at the end of last year. Moreover, more than 4 months have passed since then, but we have not yet witnessed a single constructive action on the part of Ukraine towards the implementation of this mechanism in the legislation and further political settlement.
The Ukrainian party has not yet demonstrated any intention to work on every legal aspect of the special status of Donbass, as it was instructed by the Normandy Format leaders. We have not yet witnessed a single proposal from Ukrainian representatives on the draft amendments to the law on special status, including the implementation of the Steinmeier Formula provisions, draft laws, by-laws and agreements arising from this key legislation. And the most important thing is that there are no signs of either proposals or readiness to coordinate the Donbass special status consolidation in the Constitution with the Republics’ representatives. The Kiev authorities continue to evade all these steps, despite pledges to respect their obligations.
Such an unscrupulous approach generally characterizes the conduct of Ukrainian representatives: even when Kiev agrees to certain joint decisions within the Contact Group framework, these agreements are subsequently either not implemented in full, or are implemented incorrectly, or are not implemented at all.
We would like to once again remind the authorities of Ukraine that the Package of Measures has no alternative and, given its international legal status, is required to be implemented in accordance with the precise order and meaning of the paragraphs approved by the guarantor states and enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution. Therefore, Kiev has only two options for the future development of events: either to accurately and rigorously comply with its obligations under the Minsk Agreements, or to bear full and unconditional responsibility for disrupting peaceful settlement with all the attendant consequences,” Natalia Nikonorova said.