The Ukrainian minister for «reintegration» of Donbass and at the same time the representative of Ukraine in the Contact group Mr. Reznikov continues to believe that his department functions perfectly and copes with the existing tasks, which means that he can spend time on extensive interviews for the media instead of undertaking at least some efforts for a real resumption of peace in Donbass, DPR Plenipotentiary and Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova stated.
«So, he ponders at length whether Steinmeier’s formula is dangerous for Ukrainian sovereignty or not, apparently trying to bend under a radical-minded segment of society. But at the same time, Mr. Reznikov is silent about the fact that Steinmeier’s formula itself is just a mechanism for the entry into force of Donbass special status. And exactly what this status is, what are its parameters and spheres of action to be determined within the framework of a joint dialogue and in accordance with the Minsk agreements. There is no dialogue in this direction: instead of productive work on a political settlement, Kiev has succeeded in all these years only in inventing new excuses for sabotage, as well as in developing some kind of out-of-reality initiatives like the draft law on a transitional period, which are not they simply do not bring progress on the Minsk site closer, but lead the situation with the implementation of the Package of measures to a “minus” basis.
It is also unpleasantly surprising that the persistence with which Ukrainian officials try to ignore the true essence of the events of 2014 in Donbass and repeat the hackneyed mantra that «Russia is a party to the conflict with Ukraine.» For more than 7 years of confrontation, leaders of Ukraine did not bother to figure out what happened after the illegal coup d’etat in Kiev and why the residents of Donbass did not want to be part of this lawlessness. Kiev leaders could not carefully read the Package of measures either, otherwise they would have made sure that the conflict parties are Donetsk, Lugansk and Ukraine, but not Russia, which, in principle, is never even mentioned in this document.
However, the specialist in “reintegration” Mr. Reznikov had a bit of sincerity in recent interview, assessing the working effect on the Minsk site as “absolutely zero”. Only he forgot to note that the blame for these «four or five hours about nothing» lies solely with the representatives of the Ukrainian delegation, who are more interested in casuistry and other sophistry during negotiations. One of the most eloquent examples: it will soon be a year since we sent our draft Roadmap for consideration to Kiev, which sets out a way out of the current impasse, but we still have not received any response from Ukraine. In such circumstances, does anyone else have doubts, who is responsible for the zero efficiency of the Minsk process?
At the same time, we once again underline the fact that the Ukrainian authorities will not be able to simply declare the Minsk talks «dead history» and refuse to fulfill them without consequences. The Package of measures was approved by the UN Security Council; this document has the status of international law act. It means that the Ukrainian negotiators and, in particular, Mr. Reznikov should devote their time not to self-admiration in the media space, but to real, productive and joint work with the Republics to implement their obligations on the Minsk negotiation track,» the DPR Foreign Minister said.
