Donetsk, Dec 17 - DAN. The Office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been unable to post on its website the correct version of the communique since the “Normandy Four” summit in Paris on December 9, Donetsk People’s Republic Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Tuesday.
The scandal around the publication began on November 11. Back then, Ukraine secretly edited the document, having changed its part where the parties agreed to discuss “all legal aspects of the special status (of Donbass) for “all legal aspects of the Law on special status.” This narrowed the notion of special status down to one law, relieving Ukraine of the need to introduce amendments to the Constitution envisioned by the Minsk Agreements. Donetsk and Lugansk demanded, as an ultimatum, that Kiev present the correct translation. On the same day, Zelensky’s Office corrected the mistake, albeit at the second attempt.
"Not it has turned out that the official English version of the communique has never been published. Instead of taking the official version from the Elysee Palace website, Ukrainian officials decided to show creativity or negligence and posted the text on the website of the Office of the Ukrainian president which they had translated from Ukrainian into English,” Nikonorova said in comments received by the Donetsk News Agency. “Ukraine continues to give surprises as the presidential Office personnel is stubbornly unable to put the correct version of the final communique on its website.”
As a result, instead of the officially coordinated communique in the language of the negotiations, the Ukrainian authorities published a low-quality and distorted translation.
“We don’t know whether it was deliberate falsification or blatant incompetence. Regardless of the reason behind the incident, we urge Kiev to immediately place, on all the official Ukrainian websites, the only authentic version of the communique coordinated by the Paris meeting participants,” the minister said.*jk