Donetsk, Mar 25 - DAN. Ukraine has shown its diplomatic ineptitude over the years of Minsk talks and is trying in all ways to shift the responsibility on to Russia, Donetsk People’s Republic representative in the Contact Group, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Thursday.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in an interview with the Slovak political news magazine Tyzden that the conflict in Donbass could “end in a week if Russia agrees.” He also believes that it is impossible to make headway in the peace process without a “green light” from Moscow.

“We’re well aware why the Minsk process has such low effectiveness: ironically, Mr Kuleba himself talks about it in his interview. The thing is that all these years Kiev has waited for a certain ‘green light’ trying ‘to make Russia stop the conflict.’ That is, instead of meeting its commitments under the document approved by the UN Security Council, Ukraine is seeking to shift the responsibility for sabotaging these commitments, and make a fine picture to create an illusion of a bona-fide Kiev at the talks,” Nikonorova said.

Ukraine’s  voicing these points for international mass media shows its attempts to persuade the international community of its alleged commitment to the Minsk accords. Meanwhile, the DPR knows a thing or two about the peace process delay, she said.

“We tried to coordinate the Steinmeier formula with Kiev for nearly three years, finalise the tighter ceasefire control measures for more than two years (eventually, Kiev withdrew from this accord six weeks after signing it) and we’ve been awaiting comments on our Road Map draft for almost half a year. Not mentioning the fact that the package of Measures was signed more than six years ago; in fact, not a single article of it has been fully implemented yet,” Niionorova said.

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The Agreements dated September 5 and 19, 2014 and February 12, 2015 forged by the Contact Group in Minsk make groundwork for a peaceful settlement of the Donbass conflict. The Contact Group set forth a peace plan and agreed a ceasefire, then adopted the Memorandum on ceasefire implementation and later on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

It envisions immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbass, withdrawal of heavy weapons,  discussion of the modalities for the resumption of payment of pensions and allowances to DPR and LPR citizens, and constitutional reform in Ukraine which has to provide for decentralization, including a reference to the specificities of certain areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, agreed with the representatives of these areas (Article 11).*jk