The recent talks of the political group, which the new representative of Kiev took part in, did not lead to significant results, DPR Plenipotentiary Representative and Minister of Foreign Affairs Natalya Nikonorova stated.
Earlier the Ukrainian party undertook to send the political group its written proposals on integration of Steinmeier’s formula into the Ukrainian legislation, but they have not submitted for the Contact Group’s consideration any drafts of this regulatory legal act so far.
“Despite the large-scale PR campaign that the Ukrainian authorities launched on their media regarding the effectiveness of their decision to partially reshuffle and expand the delegation of negotiators in the Minsk format, this has not led to any progress. Kiev used to repeatedly replace its representatives before, but this only hinders constructive talks. In the conditions of the Ukrainian party’s refusal to provide its written positions, we negotiate with the new representatives virtually from scratch, reconsidering and discussing again what was being discussed earlier,” the DPR Plenipotentiary told.
She noted that Kiev also did not seek to advance the matter of approving the rules of procedure of the Contact Group and working subgroups. This agenda item is discussed, but the Ukrainian delegation suggests ideas contrary to the Minsk Agreements.
“Accordingly, the negotiation time is spent not on constructive activities, but on proving to representatives of Ukraine why this or that proposal of theirs is unacceptable,” Natalya Nikonorova highlighted.