Donetsk, Feb 8 – DAN. Ukraine keeps trying to bottleneck the Minsk and N4 peace talks, said DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova commenting on the recent statements of her Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba.
Kuleba said speaking to the Radio Svoboda that Russia and Donbass resort to provocations to impede the peace settlement. Among provocations, he said, was the Russian Donbass Forum held in Donetsk on January 28-29, where the Russian Donbass doctrine has been endorsed.
"The reality is quite the opposite: Ukraine puts strains on both Minsk and N4 talks, and does so by a variety of means. They swing from re-writing the Minsk Agreements to calling to include new participants into the talks, or openly ignore the second side of the conflict, Donbass, and say it is impossible to have a dialog with them. Kiev blames either Republics or Russia for the derailment attempts, moreover, certain persons close to diplomatic talks do not mince their words," Nikonorova said.
She said that Kiev's assurances that it has fulfilled the Normandy Four requirements are "especially surreal".
"Kuleba's words on provocations are an exact description of Ukrainian approach towards the peace settlement. Such media revelations are not perceived as high profile disclosures, but rather as an illustration to the proverb: a guilty conscience needs no accuser," Nikonorova said.
The Contact Group and its subgroups met om February 2-3, but the talks yielded no substantial results. *ot