Donetsk, Oct 26 - DAN. Ukrainian representatives in the political subgroup have again avoided the discussion of the Donbass talks Road Map, Donetsk People’s Republic Deputy Foreign Minister, DPR representative in the Contact Group subgroup on political issues Natalia Mikhailova said on Tuesday.
“In the political group, the most pressing and urgent issue at present is the coordination of the general Road Map draft, a task set by the Contact Group more than a year ago,” Mikhailova said. “Meanwhile, Ukraine does not understand at all the importance of urgent solution of this issue: instead of substantive work, Ukrainian representatives insistently raise the topics that are absolutely unrelated to the agenda or the working group’s competence.”
She added that the mediators in the person of the Russian Federation and the OSCE fully supported the Donbass Republics in their striving towards restoring the dialogue.
The Contact Group talks over the settlement in Donbass became complicated after the Ukrainian parliament adopted a resolution on local elections last summer, whose article four contradicts the Minsk Agreements. It was suggested that the subgroup's work be reanimated by approving the appropriate Road Map. In October 2020, the DPR and the LPR sent to the Contact Group a draft Road Map to implement the Minsk accords. Ukraine did not respond but a month later Kiev presented its own “plan of steps.” The DPR said that 78 percent of the document was a violation of the Package of Measures.
On September 28, 2021, DPR representatives said after a security subgroup session that they had worked out a new Road Map version. Back then, it was also announced that it had been sent to the OSCE for circulation between all the participants. Ukraine did not receive the document. The discussion was derailed. The new document was presented in the subgroup on October 12. *jk