President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky considered all the clauses of the Minsk agreements unsatisfactory, but stressed that this is the only format that works.
“I don’t want to talk about Minsk checkpoints. I am not satisfied with all points. We have a different attitude to the order of execution of certain items. But we are big boys. We must do something that can de-occupy our territories, ”he said in an interview with Politico.
The Ukrainian leader added that the agreements, in particular, protect the country “in one form or another” and, “unfortunately, only work.”
Zelensky also said that Kiev is currently negotiating with Moscow on dialogue formats on this issue.
“When you meet in Minsk or in the Normandy format, you must understand that on this day the aggravation may be less, and you must understand that this or that person could die on this day, but this did not happen. That is why it is important,” the President of Ukraine stressed.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said that the West is constantly trying to make Russia one of the parties to the Minsk agreements, but does not take into account the fact that there are no Russian obligations in them. In addition, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation stressed that the more time passes from the moment of signing the Minsk agreements, which are not implemented by Ukraine, the more Donbass is separated from Kiev. He added that the Minsk agreements must be implemented as a whole package, and not in parts, as is being sought in Ukraine. The Permanent Representative expressed regret that the Ukrainian authorities did not make any efforts to implement the Minsk agreements.
On January 26, a meeting of political advisers of the Normandy Four was held in Paris. Representatives of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine conferred for more than 8.5 hours.
The parties to the negotiation process agreed on the need to maintain a truce and a ceasefire in Donbass, regardless of the discrepancies in the Minsk agreements, and also made an inventory of them. As head of the Russian delegation Dmitry Kozak noted, without a common understanding of all the provisions of the Minsk agreements, the Normandy format will not play a significant role in resolving the conflict.
On January 27, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that no one expected breakthrough actions from the Normandy Four talks in Paris. According to him, it remains to be analyzed why several participants in the Minsk process have “different understandings of extremely understandable and clear language”.
Since 2014, the Kiev authorities have been conducting a military operation against the inhabitants of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup d’état and the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, Kiev blames Moscow for the current situation. Russia has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the intra-Ukrainian conflict. The issues of its settlement are being discussed in the Minsk and Normandy formats.
The Norman format has been in existence since June 2014. Then, during the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France discussed the settlement of the conflict in Donbass for the first time. Since then, five more summits have taken place, the last one being held on December 9, 2019 in Paris.
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