Russia accuses Ukraine of sabotage in Donbas negotiations
Russia is not ready to agree on the next Normandy Four summit until what was agreed in Paris is fulfilled, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the program "Big Politics" on the " of Russia 1 TV channel.
Lavrov's interview was aired before the online meeting of the foreign ministers of the "Normandy format" countries, scheduled for next week.
According to him, the Ukrainian side "crawls away from the agreements," "capriciously", does not want to agree on new points of withdrawal of troops and slows down the issues of mine clearing in the Donbas. The only condition that was fulfilled, according to Lavrov, is incomplete - is the exchange of detainees.
Lavrov stressed that he is "very concerned" about the actions of Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister on reintegration of temporary occupied territories Oleksii Reznikov.
The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the work in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group of the Minsk Process, which Reznikov oversees, turned into "complete sabotage."
In particular, Lavrov believes that Ukraine does not want to implement the "Steinmeier formula", refuses to consider the issue of introducing the "special status of Donbas in Ukrainian legislation on a permanent basis", does not want to discuss the elections in the Donbas, and instead demands the removal of "mythical mercenaries" and full control over the border.
According to Lavrov, Ukraine "instead of establishing a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk" is trying to shift the focus to the Normandy platform.
In addition, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry did not like Reznikov’s statement in an interview. Reznikov called "Minsk agreements" "at best political agreements" and not an international legal document.
"Ukrainian colleagues want to make the "Normandy format" the only channel under the Minsk agreements. And within the framework of this "Normandy format" they believe that they have Russia as an aggressor country, and France and Germany help Ukraine to force Russia to fulfill all that Ukraine itself should carry out in direct dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk," Lavrov said.
Earlier in an interview with the news outlet LB.ua, Oleksii Reznikov said that the Minsk agreements should be renegotiated and revised.