Kiev would rather care for loud and pompous statements than real steps towards peace reestablishment, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk People’s Republic Natalya Nikonorova said.
“During the meeting of the Contact Group that took place on November 11, the Ukrainian side insisted on holding an extraordinary meeting of the political group, and then was actively hyping up that call of theirs in the media. However, as soon as we noted that constructive work is possible only if specific material for discussion is provided, Kiev’s enthusiasm immediately faded, and the Ukrainian side no longer confirms its readiness for such a meeting. In particular, Kiev has not provided written comments on our draft road map, although the republics provided a detailed, article-by-article analysis of Kiev’s response paper to our document in the shortest possible time. Thus, Ukraine cared only about sending its own, detached from reality project, but Kiev is not going to carry out any productive joint work on the road map on parity principles,” Natalya Nikonorova said.
The Minister also emphasized that this pattern of behavior if absolutely typical of Ukrainian representatives at the Minsk venue.
“They care solely for loud and pompous statements, but when it comes to real steps, Kiev simply forgets that it is not enough to just announce an idea. You also need to work it out, send your written position, documents necessary for analysis, etc. Obviously, it is much more convenient for Ukrainian negotiators to deliberately sabotage constructive activities at regular meetings of both political and all other relevant subgroups, because then it is possible to create such a profitable for Kiev news hook, as an appeal to organize an extraordinary meeting.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to endlessly engage in demagoguery, especially since Ukraine resorts to such rhetoric so often that hardly anyone believes it. It is high time that the Ukrainian representatives realized that their thematic theatricals in the media about alleged adherence to the Minsk Agreements are worth nothing without real, substantive actions to affirm their commitments and fulfill them. Therefore, we recommend that Kiev either proceed with constructive, joint work with the republics on the future action plan to implement the Complex of Measures or officially admit its inability to fulfil this document,” Natalya Nikonorova stated.