Donetsk, Sep 24 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic representatives in the Contact Group will insist on Ukraine’s signing the Steinmeier formula, DPR Head Denis Pushilin said on Tuesday.
“The DPR representatives in the Contact Group will insist on returning to the issue of signing the Steinmeier formula which the Ukrainian delegation failed on September 18,” Pushilin said. “We will demand at the next meeting in Minsk scheduled for October 1 that Ukraine sign the text coordinated by “Normandy Four” advisors.
“It has to be done so that Kiev does not avoid the obligation to give a special status to Donbas, leave our people alone at last and let all of us live as we wish - independently and peacefully,” he said.
Earlier reports said that Kiev’s representative to the Contact Group Leonid Kuchma did not sign the Steinmeier formula despite the approval of the text by Andrey Yermak, an aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Later on, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko called it a “technical misunderstanding” while Yermak said that the Donbass self governance was not a subject of negotiations though it is the Steinmeier formula that determines its enforcement.
In early 2016, the then German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier (currently President of Germany) suggested a mechanism to enforce the law on Donbass special status on the day of local elections on a temporary basis, and permanently upon the OSCE publishing its report on the elections outcome. The mechanism was suggested in early 2016; despite the positive opinion of Minsk talks participants, Ukraine has refused to make headway in its implementation.*jk