The proposal of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to change the Minsk format is a PR, neither side supports the idea. This was stated by the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Denis Pushilin.
“These are innuendo for the sake of PR – and which diminish the value of the statement as president of Mr. Zelensky – a lot of these statements, you saw. Either Israel as a mediator, then negotiations in the Vatican, then in Turkey, then in Israel, did he even talk to someone? ” – said the head of the DPR in an interview with RIA Novosti.
In this regard, Pushilin advised the Ukrainian leader to do more than talk. He drew attention to the “mass of statements” by Zelensky, which “do not correspond to reality in any way.”
The head of the republic recalled that Zelensky’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko also spoke about the change in the Minsk format earlier. At the same time, the Ukrainian side intends to change the clauses of the agreements in the manner necessary for Ukraine directly. In particular, as noted by Pushilin, to establish control over the border.
“We, let’s take the border, and then later … or we will hold elections, and we will do everything there, and in general, everything will be fine. Only for whom is it good? For the citizens of Donbass? It will be a massacre, we are convinced of this, ”he stressed.
On April 26, Zelenskiy pointed to the need to change or cancel the Minsk format, and also called on the United States, Britain and Canada to take a more active part in the diplomatic process on this issue.
The press service of the “Opposition Platform – For Life” faction noted that the Ukrainian president, with his statement about changing the Minsk format and refusing to negotiate with the leaders of the DPR and LPR, signed in the inability to resolve the conflict in Donbass.
The next day, Zelenskiy said the Minsk agreements should be flexible and some clauses should be updated. According to him, in order to resolve the conflict in the region, one more format can be created parallel to the Norman one – with the participation of “powerful players” who express a desire to help Ukraine end the conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on April 28 assessed Zelensky’s statements and said that the team of the President of Ukraine is “wriggling as best it can” in attempts to avoid fulfilling the obligations under the Minsk agreements. The Kremlin also noted that the statement of the Ukrainian leader is “another alarm signal.”
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup and the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities blame Russia for the current situation. Moscow has repeatedly noted that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict. The settlement issues are being discussed in the Minsk and Normandy (RF, Ukraine, Germany, France) formats.