Donetsk, Oct 14 – DAN French President Francois Hollande’s statement on priorities in the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, such as ‘elections first, border control later,’ fully conforms to the position of the Donetsk People’s Republic, acting DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said.
“On October 11, 2016, French President Francois Hollande, speaking at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, reiterated that the implementation of the Minsk Agreements was the only way out of the conflict,” said Nikanorova, the DPR representative in the Political group. “He also underlined that holding local elections in Donbass had priority over Kiev’s regaining control over the Russian-Ukrainian border.”
“The French president’s statement utterly and completely conforms to the sequence of clauses in the Package of Measures towards settling the situation and meets the position maintained by the republics’ representatives in Minsk,” she said.
The DPR diplomat noted that 18 months on, the Ukrainian representatives directly participating in the Minsk process have not yet read the package of the signed documents through. All that time, they “have been closing their eyes to the order of implementation of the clauses, sabotaging the review and approval of the road map and trying to make world leaders believe their fantasies,” Nikanorova went on.
“However, the truth cannot be hidden despite all efforts by Ukraine, and today, the whole world is explaining to Mr Poroshenko, a signatory to the Minsk Agreements, that the Package of Measures should be read from left to right, from the first to the thirteenth clause, not vice versa, and that Donbass’ special status is the basis for settling the conflict as it also works out and presents a ready formula for its coming into effect,” the DPR foreign minister said.
On October 11, 2016, French President Francois Holland, answering questions at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said that the implementation of the Minsk Agreements was the only way out of the conflict. He noted that he believed local elections had priority over Kiev’s retaking control over the Ukrainian-Russian border.
“After the elections, Ukraine needs to get control of the border,” Hollande said referring to the procedure spelled out by the Minsk Agreements.
Kiev was sharply critical of Hollande’s statement. Arsen Avakov, head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry which de-facto controls numerous nationalist squadrons in the conflict zone said that “the French president takes too much upon himself.“