Donetsk, Jun 15 - DAN. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s statement on the possibility to settle the Donbass conflict outside the framework of the Minsk agreements is an attempt to help Ukraine out of the deadlock, DPR envoy to Minsk talks Denis Pushilin said on Thursday.
“In plain language, it means that the Americans suggest discussing new accords in a new format,” Pushilin wrote on Facebook. “Such statements are a telltale example of political manipulation and blatant bias, where Poroshenko regime is being rescued and helped in the Minsk Agreements stalemate as implementation or failure to implement are equally impossible for Kiev.”
Tillerson, when speaking about the possibility of talks between Kiev and Moscow outside the Minsk framework, ignores the difference in their status. Ukraine, in the Donbass peace process, is a party to the conflict while Russia is a guarantor of negotiations.
At the hearing at the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs on 14 June, Tillerson said the USA did not rule out an alternative option to resolve the armed conflict in Donbass which might differ from the settlement spelled out by the Minsk Agreements. The US secretary of state said this option might envision Russian-Ukrainian talks outside the Minsk Agreement framework.*jk