Donetsk, Nov 14 - DAN. The Ukrainian leadership while reflecting on withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements, shows its indifference to the UN Security Council, Donetsk People’s Republic representative to the Contact Group talks, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko told the BBC that Kiev allowed for the possibility to withdraw from the Minsk accords.

“In the same indifferent manner, the Ukrainian foreign minister makes it clear that he and the state he represents do not care for the efforts of the Minsk accords guarantor countries, and even the UN Security Council which approved the Package of Measures by its resolution thus lending the status of international legal act to the document,” Nikonorova said in a statement received by the Donetsk News Agency.

Such remarks by the Ukrainian foreign minister put in doubt his competence, she said.

“Otherwise how can one explain why Ukraine’s top diplomat can allow himself to state his absolute disregard for the Minsk Agreements, the only effective plan for a peaceful settlement in Donbass,” Nikonorova said.

She reminded that It was Kiev that was putting the brakes on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

“The Ukrainian diplomats’ chief has accidentally missed the fact that it is the Ukrainian side that is making the negotiations “endless” as it constantly sabotages and delays discussions and decision-making at the Minsk talks. Nothing of the above can stop the Ukrainian authorities from <....> to extremely absurd statements,” Nikonorova said.

The Agreements dated 5 and 19 September 2014 and 12 February 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 envisioned immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in Donbass, withdrawal of heavy weapons, establishment of security zones, 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. Special status for Donbass is a key point of the political part of the agreements. *jk