Donetsk, Dec 10 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic Head Denis Pushilin said that he was disappointed with Ukraine’s refusal to begin the disengagement of forces and hardware along the entire contact line in Donbass.
“As for the disengagement of forces and hardware, we express our disappointment because the Normandy Four” leaders’ aides reached an accord on the whole contact line; it would be a most serious move towards achieving peace <...>,” Pushilin told reporters in comments on the “Normandy Four” meeting in Paris on December 9. “However, Ukraine showed a weakness here; and the reasons or excuses regarding why it happened are not important.”
The parties are facing meticulous work towards implementing the outcome document’s provision on the disengagement of forces and hardware in three new areas. Given the existing practice, the process will not be easy due to Kiev’s destructive position. “As we saw in previous three pilot areas, it dragged for three years: this is the Ukraine we’re dealing with. So we are quite pessimistic,” he said.
On Monday, Paris hosted a summit of the leaders of the “Normandy Four” states (Germany, Russia, France, Ukraine). The outcome document stated that a number of accords had been reached, for example, the parties supported the agreement reached by the Contact Group on settlement in eastern Ukraine on another three disengagement areas in the conflict zone by late March 2020.*jk