Russia has offered Germany and France to discuss until April 27 issues of an armistice in eastern Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk agreements, said on Friday, April 23, the deputy head of the presidential administration Dmitry Kozak.
“I hope for a constructive, open and honest discussion of the draft decisions on the current (truce) and strategic issues of the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the negotiating table in the near future (no later than April 27),” Kozak’s letter says.
It is emphasized that the conflict in Donbass cannot be resolved without direct agreements between Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
Kozak also announced the possibility of holding negotiations “directly in the conflict zone with the participation of representatives of Ukraine and certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
He noted that Kiev is aimed not at establishing peace in Donbass, but at avoiding dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk.
“At the same time, such a dialogue really exists. All discussions in the Contact Group, in its working subgroups are 99% discussions between representatives of Ukraine and Donbass. It is solely about creating the appearance of the absence of such a dialogue for the radical political forces of Ukraine, ”said the deputy head of the Russian leader’s administration.
According to him, Kiev also continues to evade obligations to implement joint mechanisms to control the ceasefire on the contact line.
On April 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy offered to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin “anywhere” in Donbass. According to him, the different views of Kiev and Moscow on the past and the future can be viewed not as a problem, but as an opportunity.
The Russian President responded to the proposal of the Ukrainian leader, noting that if Kiev wants to restore relations, Moscow will only welcome this. According to Putin, in order to develop bilateral relations, the Russian Federation will receive Zelensky in Moscow at any time convenient for him. The Russian leader stressed that the Ukrainian authorities have taken a lot of steps destroying relations between the two countries.
Also, according to Putin, Zelensky needs to negotiate the situation in the region with the leaders of the DPR and LPR and only then discuss this issue with third countries.
The head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, has already announced his readiness to meet with the President of Ukraine at any point on the contact line in Donbass.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup in the country. At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities blame Moscow for the current situation. The Russian Federation has repeatedly noted that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict, and called on Kiev to negotiate with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, implement the Minsk agreements and achieve de-escalation.