Donetsk, Sep 23 - DAN. The Ukrainian leadership stoops to barefaced lies in the bid to give up its obligations of peaceful Donbass conflict settlement, Donetsk People’s Republic envoy to the Contact Group, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Monday.
Earlier, Ukrainian presidential aide Andrey Yermak told the Levy Bereg online media that the special self-rule in Donbass was not a subject of negotiations at Minsk or “Normandy Four” meetings. In early September, advisors to the Normandy Four” leaders discussed the enforcement of the law on special status of Donbass under the Steinmeier formula.
Yermak, the Ukrainian representative at the talks, agreed to the mechanism at the time. However, at the meeting in Minsk on September 18, Ukrainian representative to the Contact Group Leonid Kuchma refused to sign the formula.
“Ukrainian representative increasingly often make the statements which not only openly refuse to fulfil the Minsk Agreements, but also prove that Kiev stoops to barefaced lies in the bid not to give up its obligations within the Package of Measures,” Nikonorova said. “Using ridiculous and far-fetched statements, the Ukrainian leadership is apparently trying to calm down the raging radicals who protest the special status for Donbass.”
She added that Yermak’s statement was undisguised sabotage of the peace accords. “Rejecting the fact of the discussion of the Donbass special status within the “Normandy Four” format, Yermak disseminates misinformation because it was that group that produced the mechanism for enforcing the special status law,” she said. “We note that the special the Donbass special status was approved by the UN Security Council and is binding for implementation as the foundation for the whole political settlement process. Consequently, Ukraine’s refusal to implement this article of the Package of Measures is an obvious and gross violation of the Minsk Agreements,” Nikonorova said.*jk