DPR Plenipotentiary and Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova summarized the outcomes of the Contact Group meeting on security, political and humanitarian issues, which took place on March 31.
“Mr. Kravchuk called on the participants to agree on a certain formulation, which should supposedly reaffirm the parties’ commitment to Measures to strengthen the ceasefire from a certain date and time. Ukraine should finally bring in line the publication on the Ministry of Defense website, which underwent strange metamorphoses, in particular, it was repeatedly deleted and another version appeared.
The next and key step should be the holding by the Ukrainian party of the proceedings on the murder of an elderly civilian from Aleksandrovka by the AFU sniper, as stipulated in the paragraph 4 of the Measures, and sending an appropriate notification to the coordinator Ms. Grau about the proceedings results and the application of disciplinary sanctions to everyone involved in this war crime,” Natalia Nikonorova commented on the course of the Contact Group meeting on security issues.
During the meeting of the Contact Group on political issues, the Ukrainian side again used the tactic of dragging out the negotiations by suggesting strange, unreasonable initiatives.
“We heard the announcement of the Ukrainian delegation head that he had made a decision to appoint a certain adviser for “consultations with Donbass representatives”. At the same time, Mr. Kravchuk was unable to answer any of our logical questions after such an announcement: what will be the powers of this advisor, what functions will he have, for what tasks it is proposed to carry out our interaction with this advisor?
The head of the Ukrainian delegation tried to explain his idea by the fact that the Package of Measures contains the words “consultations with representatives of CADLR”. However, we reminded him that in this document the word “consultations” is invariably accompanied by the word “coordination”. Moreover, within the framework of the Contact Group. Thus, if Ukraine introduces an adviser on “consultations”, then he should also have the authority to sign the agreements reached at the negotiations, and not with some unknown persons elected by Kiev, but with real representatives of Donbass,» the DPR Plenipotentiary said.
Natalia Nikonorova called on the mediators of negotiations to pay close attention to Ukraine’s manipulations: its representatives make deliberately every effort to nullify the existing format and meaning of the Contact Group by squeezing the Republics out of the negotiations.
«All the initiatives of Kiev and the behavior of the Ukrainian negotiators at the Minsk platform are aimed exclusively at aggravating the existing stagnation in the Contact Group work, which is presented under the guise of fulfilling the Minsk agreements,» the MFA Chief noted.
Unfortunately, the discussion on humanitarian issues within the framework of negotiations did not lead to positive results.
“From session to session, we ask the Ukrainian party the same questions, but Kiev has not bothered to answer them. We systematically ask, firstly, when the procedural “clearing” of those 50 persons who were released in the exchange process, but who are still under criminal prosecution in Ukraine, will be completed. We know that for a month now, papers on the implementation of this “clearing” have been lying on the table of the Ukraine’s President. Only one signature separates us from real progress in this direction, all preparatory work has already been completed. It perfectly illustrates who exactly opposes the exemption from criminal prosecution of these citizens and does not seek to fulfill the obligations of Ukraine.
And, secondly, when the Ukrainian authorities begin to pass humanitarian supplies through the Elenovka-Novotroitskoe checkpoint, or at least when they explain to us why Kiev considers it safe to pass people through this checkpoint, and the goods unsafe.
Nevertheless, from time to time these issues are openly ignored by the Ukrainian negotiators without any explanation,” Natalia Nikonorova said.
The next meeting of the Contact Group to settle the conflict in Donbass is to take place on April 14.
