According to Ukraine’s ex-president, a
meeting between Ukraine’s and Russia’s leaders could be a major step towards
the conflict settlement.
KIEV,
January 7. /TASS/. A possible way to settle the conflict in Donbass could be
through filling the Minsk agreements with a new content, Ukraine’s first
President Leonid Kravchuk said on Sunday.
"How
can we stop the war (the armed conflict in Donbass - TASS)? There are several
ways… We can change of fill the Minsk format with other content," he said
in an interview with the 112.Ukrainia television channel.
Apart from
that, according to Kravchuk, a meeting between Ukraine’s and Russia’s leaders
could be a major step towards the conflict settlement. He said that such
meeting could tackle all aspects of the settlement but for Ukraine’s
territorial integrity, a subject the sides "will never be able to speak
about."
The
Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from
Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015,
signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk
agreements. The package was agreed with the leaders of the
Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.
The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.
These
agreements however have not been implemented until now. The Ukrainian side has
been dodging implementation of the package’s political provisions citing
security problems as a reason.
Ukraine has
failed to carry out a constitutional reform, to enforce a law on the region’s
special status and to pass a law on elections in Donbass. Instead, it insists
on regaining control over the border with Russia, which is to take place only
after the elections, as is envisaged by the Minsk agreements.
Source: ITAR-TASS 08-01-2018
