The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the contact group on Donbass, Leonid Kravchuk, said that he allows the transfer of the platform for negotiations on a settlement from Belarus to Sweden due to the protests in Belarus.
“Belarus does not take part in the trilateral group. If suddenly there is no such opportunity to hold meetings there, then we will look for another place. At first, there were no Minsk agreements. First there was Geneva. You can take a completely neutral state, the same Sweden. We can ask them. It is possible, “- said Kravchuk on Thursday, August 13, in an interview with Ukrainian Radio.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that talks in Minsk of the contact group to resolve the situation in Donbass would not stop, despite protests in Belarus. According to him, the next meeting is scheduled for August 18.
On August 8, Kravchuk announced four steps to resolve the conflict in Donbass. He stressed that Ukraine is ready to make concessions with appropriate steps from the self-proclaimed republics.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against Donbass, whose residents refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Kiev. The settlement issues are being discussed in the Minsk format and at the meetings of the Normandy Four.
Mass protests have been taking place in Belarus since August 9, on that day, presidential elections were held in the country. The current head of state Alexander Lukashenko, according to the CEC, received 80.08% of the vote, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya was supported by 10.09% of voters. Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters did not recognize the results of the vote.
After that, people who disagreed with the election results began to take to the streets. They are opposed by the security forces. In the clashes, there are casualties on both sides.
On August 12, it was reported that in Brest, the police opened fire on protesters who attacked them with rebar.