The Ukrainian authorities are again trying to substitute the content of their political commitments by completely reversing their meaning, the DPR envoy for the talks in Minsk, Foreign Minister Natalya Nikonorova stated.

“Internal Affairs Minister Avakov’s initiative about his intention to pass some “law on collaborationists”, which implies a scouring of the population and criminal prosecution of its significant part, is completely detached from reality. This mechanism completely contradicts the logic and meaning of the UN Security Council’s resolution that approved the Minsk Agreements as binding. In accordance with Paragraph 5 of the Complex of Measures, Ukraine assumed the obligation to grant amnesty to all those involved in the events of 2014. At the same time, drawing a direct parallel between this law and the amnesty law is the top of hypocrisy.

The Ukrainian leadership’s statements about joint patrolling also trigger some questions. Avakov claims that it is impossible to conduct joint patrolling with the People’s Militia, while the Ukrainian Foreign Minister says that eventually they will have to go for that. Such disorder is extremely telling and raises the question whether Ukraine can be considered a reliable negotiating partner under such conditions? Not to mention the fact that all those plans are brought forward unilaterally, without agreeing with representatives of the republics, which, of course, makes them pointless a priori. It is high time the Kiev authorities found one position among themselves, and even better reread again the Complex of Measures, which specifies that it is the local People’s Militia that should maintain public order.

Such statements by Ukrainian officials confirm our feeling that the new regime, unfortunately, has not brought new approaches to the peaceful regulation. Kiev absolutely misunderstands the fact that the crisis in the negotiation process results from their refusal to negotiate directly with the republics in favor of such provocative initiatives. The Ukrainian authorities are wasting their time ignoring the call of international mediators for expanding the work on political settlement. Having clear guidelines for all the areas of peaceful settlement, especially for political aspects, the Ukrainian party has not fulfilled any of them fully yet. By doing so, Ukraine is demonstrating once again that it is weak and unreliable as an international partner,” Nikonorova stressed.