Donetsk, Sep 10 - DAN. Ukraine will have to implement the Minsk Agreements and meet Donbass’ legitimate demands despite the guidelines to the contrary set by Western forces, Director of the Centre for Current Politics Alexey Chesnakov said in an interview to Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency on Monday.

“It’s not the West, but time that will put all things in place. Sane persons will come to power in Ukraine over time; the West’s sanctions coalition which is already disunited will collapse, and new political identity will assert itself in Donbass, everything will get to normal,” Chesnakov said.

He underlined that the Minsk process had no alternative as a peaceful settlement of the Donbass conflict. “They (the Minsk Agreements) work at least for the reason that those who claim that they are at a dead end, keep adding that they have no alternative,” the expert said.

The political scientist also said that the Minsk Agreements were a body of official and unofficial documents adopted at various levels in different periods and that more documents might be added in the future.

“New “Minsk Agreements” appear as often as required. The process continues. Of course, additional documents will be drawn. All of them must not and will not contradict the essence of the Minsk process and its final objective, namely peace and special status for Donbass,” the political scientist 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, in February 2015, the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements. It 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. Kiev continues to systemically sabotage the peace efforts and ignores the commitments it has undertaken.*jk