Donetsk, Sep 18 - DAN. Ukraine at the Wednesday talks in Minsk sabotaged the coordination of the Steinmeier formula threatening the holding of the “Normandy Four” summit, the Donetsk People’s Republic Foreign Minister, DPR representative to the Minsk talks Natalia Nikonorova said.
“Kiev flatly refused to coordinate the ‘Steinmeier formula’ with the Republic’s representatives threatening the holding of the “Normandy Four” summit and actually sabotaging the clear instructions by the “Normandy Four” leaders’ political advisers,” Nikonorova said. “Ukrainian representatives continue to distort the meaning of the compromise formula mistakenly prioritising the solution of security issues. It is absolutely obvious that the Ukrainian leadership will be unable to sabotage the work on the political track all the time.”
On September 2, the political advisors to the leaders of the “Normandy Four” states (Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine) coordinated the text of the Steinmeier formula and sent the document for approval at the Contact Group meeting on September 18.
In early 2016, the German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier 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 refused to make headway in its implementation.*jk