Minister for the «reintegration» of Donbass Alexei Reznikov keeps strenuously trying to shift the blame for Ukraine’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the Minsk agreements on someone else in order not to admit their own responsibility for this, DPR Plenipotentiary and Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova stated.
“It comes down to absolutely absurd statements along the lines of “Russians block all the positive points.” As for this part, we would very much like to check with Mr. Reznikov the two points: firstly, are the Ukrainian authorities and he personally as a participant in the negotiation process at the Minsk venue aware that the parties to the conflict in Donbass are Kiev and, in fact, Donbass, but not Russia? And, secondly, what positive points are basically being discussed? Or does Kiev regard its destructive conduct in the negotiations, its refusal to agree on a package of measures to enhance the ceasefire, its unwillingness to consider our draft Roadmap, its cynical approach to the non-admission of humanitarian cargoes as «positive points»? In this case, we recommend that Mr. Reznikov, in his following interview, describe in more details what he is talking about so as not to mislead the readers – although, in our opinion, there will hardly be anyone closely following the Minsk process to be misled by blatant misinformation from the Ukrainian authorities.
At that, even the representatives of Ukraine themselves openly confirm that their main geopolitical task is to extend and expand sanctions against Russia – a constant theme of almost all of Mr. Reznikov’s statements is that “no one will lift sanctions from Russia.” Apparently, this is the only thing that Kiev cares about, but the Ukrainian authorities marginally mention the fact that “the level of escalation has increased, our people are again killed” and absolutely ignore the options to resolve this situation. We recall that it was Kiev to withdraw from the measures to enhance the ceasefire regime and it is Kiev to refuse to agree upon an updated package of these measures.
And the statements on the fact that «Russia sees Donbass as a mere bargaining chip in geopolitics» sound absolutely ridiculous. In this case, evidently, Mr. Reznikov made a so-called Freudian slip, because it is precisely Ukraine that views Donbass exclusively as a tool for obtaining financial, administrative and military benefits from Western «partners.» We can state for sure who really «does not respect the Donbass population» – it is enough just to recall who has been shelling our territories for seven years already, who has introduced a transport, economic and humanitarian blockade, who is proposing bills on internment and collaboration and who couldn’t care less about life and health of the four million inhabitants of Donbass.
Therefore, we recommend that Mr. Reznikov does not practice putting up a good front, but rather directly admit the existing circumstances: there is already a huge rift between Ukraine and Donbass. And dastardly shelling and absolute unwillingness to conscientiously participate in a peaceful settlement now puts Kiev literally one step away from making this gulf completely unbridgeable,” the Head of the Foreign Ministry commented.
