DPR Head: Kiev tries to freeze peace talks in the absence of orders from the West

Donetsk, Nov 30 – DAN. The lack of significant progress in the Normandy Four talks is rooted in Ukraine's authorities position, who hanker for war with Donbass, DPR Head Alexander Zakharchenko said commenting on the results of the four-way talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine.

"Kiev is not going to fulfill the Minsk Agreements on its own will. They hanker for war with us. Only external factors restrain them. First of all these are Europe and especially the US positions, those countries currently going through a slight panic and disorder. Kiev is temporarily not receiving orders and it just freezes the process," Zakharchenko's statement reads.

DPR leader expects Kiev to either launch a large scale offensive before the inauguration of the USA president elect Donald Trump in January or to face a severe political crisis that will overshadow the Donbass conflict.

"The second reason (for the Normandy talks to produce no visible results) is that the format itself is misbalanced without Donbass participation. How can an issue between two sides be settled down if one of the sides is out of negotiations?" Zakharchenko added.

He said he believed the three countries in the Normandy Four format talks were striving, unsuccessfully, to talk the fourth into making peace.

"Ukraine's and Donbass' destiny cannot be decided without Donbass," Zakharchenko said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin held talks in Minsk, Belarus, on Tuesday, Nov. 29, intended to revive shaky peace process in Donbass. The meeting ended without any visible progress.

Lavrov admitted that "There weren't any breakthroughs", while Steinmeier said there is no political agreement in sight on holding local elections in Donbass.

DPR envoy to Minsk negotiations Denis Pushilin earlier said that he wasn't expecting any progress as Kiev position doesn't match the prospects of coordinating a road map to fulfill the Minsk Agreements.