Donetsk, Aug 8 - DAN. Ukrainian representatives at the Minsk talks ignore interests of the Donbass Republics’ residents refusing to give them a special status and calling for a tougher blockade, DPR representative to the Contact Group, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova told the Donetsk News Agency on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian mass media outlets carried an interview of Ukrainian representative to the political subgroup at the Minsk talks Roman Bessmertny who said Kiev would not give a special status to the DPR and the LPR and called for stopping water and electricity supply to the Republics.
“Today’s statement by the Ukrainian representative to the political group can only be viewed as an obvious attempt by Ukraine to refuse to meets its commitments under the Minsk Agreements,” Nikonorova said.
Bessmertny’s support of the idea to toughen the Donbass blockade not only contradicts Items 7 and 8 of the Package of Measures but also gives all the reasons to view the Ukrainian authorities’ attitude to civilians as absolutely inhuman and openly hostile,” she added.
In her opinion, such statements can stem from the incompetence of the Ukrainian representative and his ignorance of the content of items of the agreements.
Kiev goes too far in its undisguised disregard of not only the Donbass people but also the whole international community in the person of the United Nations Organisation which confirmed the Package of Measures as a binding legislative act by its Resolution 2202 dated February 17, 2015,” the DPR diplomat said.
The Package of Measures, also known as the Minsk-2 accords, envisioned 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 should result in deep decentralisation.*jk*pp