At the February 13 meeting of the political subgroup, the Republics’ representatives faced the lack of the Ukrainian party’s understanding of both the order and content of the most important paragraphs of the Package of Measures, the DPR MFA press service reports.
“Kiev representatives continue the attempts to make the negotiations on political settlement convenient for themselves. First and foremost, this concerns the conditions of granting Donbass a special status. The Ukrainian party is deliberately trying to skip the issue of the special status law’s entry into force and insists on considering the issues that are either beyond the Contact Group’s competence or are too premature. We had to once again urge Kiev to re-read the text of the Package of Measures, in which it is clearly indicated what should be carried out and in what order.
Referring to the Steinmeier’s Formula, one cannot but recall that its text, to which Kiev representatives gave written consent, has not yet been implemented in the Ukrainian legislation. Two months after the “Normandy Four leaders’ meeting, it can be said with confidence that Kiev has ignored all its obligations in the political sphere and has not even presented its positions. Although in the communique, following the results of the December 10 Paris meeting, the leaders pointed to a whole separate paragraph on the coordination of all legal aspects of the Donbass special status and the Steinmeier’s Formula implementation in Ukrainian legislation. Against this background, statements by the Ukrainian authorities, convinced that international mediators will make concessions in political issues, look especially cynical,” Natalia Nikonorova, DPR plenipotentiary, said.
However, she noted that at the February 13 meeting representatives of Ukraine promised to present their position on the Donbass special status’s legal aspects, but these statements have not been substantiated by any specific actions so far.