LUGANSK, February 9 (Lugansk Media Centre) - The position recently voiced by the head of the Ukrainian delegation at the Minsk talks amazes by its open aggression evidencing Ukraine’s real intention to renounce the peaceful settlement of the Donbass conflict.
In a new attempt to misinterpret the real situation and present Russia as a party to the conflict, Mr Kravchuk, speaking on a Ukrainian television channel, went as far as to say that “the best reaction would be to throw them out of Donbass” instead of continuing talks.
Kravchuk’s next phrase - to respond with a shot to every shot - contradicts not only the logic of peace talks, but also the document signed last July by Ukraine’s authorised representative in the Contact Group, his predecessor Leonid Kuchma. In his striving to look more radical than Ukrainian radicals, the incumbent head of the Ukrainian delegation has overstepped the mark.
It is noteworthy that he made his “programme call” the next day after Ukrainian armed formations’ heavy artillery - 122mm howitzers - shelled Donbass.
Mr Kravchuk actually offers us to negotiate using the “entrapment” means of persuasion of 2014-2015 which he somehow regards as acceptable. That is, in response to yesterday’s shelling of school in Zolotoye-5, fire has to be delivered at one of the schools “on the other side?”
Obviously, it is precisely this kind of response that Ukraine is trying to provoke with such statements and its constant refusals to discuss the updated version of the measures to strengthen the ceasefire with a detailed coordination mechanism.
However, we stick to our position and are committed to the obligations taken within the framework of the Minsk talks. In the runup to the sixth anniversary of the signing of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, we hope that the Ukrainian officials’ public calls for the escalation of the conflict, which are gross and direct violations of the Minsk Agreements as the only accords on peaceful settlement, will be properly assessed by Contact Group intermediaries Russia and the OSCE and “Normandy” guarantors of Kiev’s commitments Germany and France.
We again call upon everybody who has at least some influence on Kiev, to bring the Ukrainian leadership to reason and return it to the implementation of its obligations under the Package of Measures, which was approved by UN Security Council resolution.
Authorised representative of the Lugansk People’s Republic to the Minsk talks
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Lugansk People’s Republic
Vladislav Deinego
