The Ukrainian leadership should negotiate with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) to end the conflict in Donbass. This was announced on Tuesday, April 27, by the co-chairman of the Opposition Platform – For Life (OPLZ) party, Yuriy Boyko.
“The resumption of the ceasefire is the most important task that stands today as the basis for the political process of ending the conflict in Donbass. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to conduct negotiations with all parties to the conflict, including the unrecognized republics, since they also signed the Minsk agreements, ”he said during a plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada.
At the same time, Boyko emphasized that the OLLO “has the political will” to negotiate for the sake of peace and the restoration of the territorial integrity of the state, if official Kiev is not ready for this, reports TASS.
The day before, the Financial Times published an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he pointed out the need to change the Minsk format or cancel it, and also called on the UK, Canada and the United States to take a more active part in the diplomatic process on this issue.
In addition, the head of state expressed a desire to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pointing out that Ukraine does not care about the place of its holding, since “we are talking about the content”. At the same time, he ruled out negotiations with representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass.
The OLEJ stressed that with his statement about changing the Minsk format, as well as his refusal to negotiate with the leaders of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, the Ukrainian leader signed for the inability to resolve the conflict in Donbass.
The faction stressed that such words of Zelensky mean Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Minsk agreements and are a natural result of the “anti-popular policy” of the current head of state and the practice of “cynical lies and systemic deception of expectations” of those voters who cast their votes for him.
According to the OLE, such a decision of the Ukrainian leader means that there will be no peace in the region, and the only alternative to peace is the loss of Donbass for the country. The faction also said that Zelensky is interested in refusing a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbass and continuing the armed conflict.
The leaders of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik announced their readiness to meet with the President of Ukraine at any point on the contact line in Donbass.
The parties to the conflict agreed on a truce in Donbass in July 2020. Nevertheless, the issue of a political settlement was not resolved, the Minsk agreements were not implemented, and the negotiations were sabotaged.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup d’etat and the new government in Ukraine. The settlement issues are being discussed in the Normandy and Minsk formats – with the participation of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.