Donetsk, Feb 4 - DAN. French politicians’ calls for elaborating or detailing the Minsk accords might have a negative impact on the peace settlement process in Donbass, Donetsk People’s Republic representative to the Contact Group, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Tuesday.
French Ambassador to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins said in an interview with Ukraine’s Hromadske TV that a number of Minsk Agreements provisions required clarification and detailing.
“These calls, in particular coming from representatives of France as one of the “Normandy Four” members, can create additional problems for the peace process, which is very complicated and difficult as it is,” Nikonorova said in comments received by the Donetsk News Agency.
She reminded de Poncins that the Package of Measures, including its political part, had been approved by the guarantor countries and the UN Security Council. The diplomat also noted that the guarantors’ obligations had been fixed in the appropriate declaration.
“We call upon western diplomats to stop supporting Kiev in its striving to revise the agreements on which the life and welfare of millions of Donbass residents depend,” Nikonorova said.
The Agreements dated September 5 and 19, 2014 and February 12, 2015 forged by the Contact Group in Minsk make groundwork for a peaceful settlement of the Donbass conflict. The Contact Group set forth a peace plan and agreed a ceasefire, then adopted the Memorandum on ceasefire implementation and later on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements envisions a Constitutional reform in Ukraine which has to result in deep decentralisation. Special status for Donbass is a key point of the political part of the agreements.*jk