There is no even minimal progress in the negotiation process, DPR Plenipotentiary and Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova commented on the outcome of the Contact Group meeting on political issues.
“The OSCE Coordinator, despite he was replaced by another diplomat, has been reading practically the same report for already 8 Contact Group meetings. Which is clearly demonstrates the deepest stagnation of the negotiation process on the political track.
At the same time, we articulate on multiple occasions that if Ukraine really wants, it would be possible to quickly restore the work of the political group and, in general, to begin a constructive dialogue on the political part implementation of the Package of Measures. In order to do this, Kiev needs, firstly, to provide its feedback to our proposals on unblocking the political group work. We proposed three options for this, i.e. there is what to choose from and what to discuss. And, secondly, we are still awaiting feedback from the Ukrainian side regarding our draft Roadmap, which was sent back in October last year,” Natalia Nikonorova said.
She also pointed out that the behavior of Ukrainian figures in the media space makes the situation with the negotiations even more absurd.
«While the Ukrainian president declares his alleged adherence to the Minsk agreements and readiness to implement them, other representatives of the Ukrainian politicians and other speakers put forward ideas that these agreements can be implemented only on a signal from Europe, that Kiev is not going to implement the Steinmeier formula and other strange theses. But the Ukrainian negotiators within the Contact Group refuse to give any explanations and comments on this matter.
That is why today, having met Mr. Kinnunen, who will take the position of the OSCE Special Representative in Ukraine and in the Contact Group from August 1, we drew his attention on two fundamentally important points. First, the need to urgently unblock the work of the political group, which is possible to do only if Ukraine is ready for this. Because, in fact, it is Kiev that is responsible for blocking this activity. And, secondly, we invited Mr. Kinnunen to visit the Republics in order to personally get acquainted with the situation in Donbass. In our opinion, such experience will greatly help him in fulfilling his duties as an OSCE Special Representative in the Contact Group,” the DPR Plenipotentiary said.
