Donetsk, Jun 9 – DAN. It is premature to discuss issue of changing the venue of the talks on Donbass settlement as the negotiations are currently held via video conference calls, the DPR Head Denis Pushilin told journalists at the Great Russian Word XIV International Festival in Crimea.
"Currently all the meetings are conducted via video conference calls. It's been like this for more than a year. Considering latest COVID-19 developments we can see that this period is going to last long. It is premature to put this issue on the agenda, it has not been done," he said quoted by the TASS news agency.
Pushilin emphasized that the possible change of the venue of the talks must be decided at the UN Security Council level as it endorsed the Package of Measures to Implement the Minsk Agreements by its resolution.
"You want some change? Change it within the UNSC first, submit it there. After that, the Normandy Four and the Contact Group. This is a long, cumbersome mechanism. That is why all the statements by Kravchuk and his Ukrainian colleagues are no more than a PR stance and a cause to make their figures more significant."
Ukrainian delegation has lately got wordy about the change of the talks location.
The peaceful settlement of the Donbas crisis is based on the Minsk Agreements dated 5 September 2014 and, followed by the 19 September 2014 Memorandum on the ceasefire implementation. On 12 February 2015 the negotiators signed the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements; it sets forth immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in effect from 15 February 2015; withdrawal of heavy weapons, establishment of a security zone; discussion of modalities of resuming social payments in Donbass; a constitutional reform in Ukraine aimed at a profound decentralization of the state’s system of government. *ot