Donetsk, Jul 6 - DAN. Ukrainian negotiators in the subgroup on security issues turned the discussion of agenda items into verbal speculation, Donetsk People’s Republic representative in the subgroup Alexey Nikonorov said after a video conference on Tuesday.
“We offer practical measures to verify violations and their consequences at every session focused on the discussion of the coordination mechanism; in response, Ukraine starts an absolutely senseless and obviously political discourse over the current membership of the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination and the purpose of the coordination mechanisms, turning the sessions into trivial verbal speculation,” Nikonorov said.
In his opinion, making peace in Donbass is not an objective of the Ukrainian leadership.
“We’ve been trying to finalise the almost ready document (the addendum to the Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire - eds Donetsk News Agency), but the problem is that achieving peace is not Ukraine’s objective. Otherwise, nothing can excuse Ukraine’s stubborn avoidance of direct interaction with the Republics’ representatives,” the DPR representative said.
The Contact Group subgroups on security, political, humanitarian and economic issues held sessions earlier in the day. The Contact Group is expected to sum up the results of the talks on July 7.
On July 22, 2020, the Contact Group finalised and signed a package of ceasefire control measures. The document bans the use of any weapons, deployment of hardware, special operations, engineer works, unmanned aerial vehicles flights etc. It also envisioned the establishment of a coordination mechanisms at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination, to seek out and punish ceasefire violators, but this measure was never implemented.*jk