16.02.2017, DPR.
“Only the last one out of 13 clauses included in the Package of Measures for the Implementing of the Minsk Agreement, the one concerning the establishment of working groups, was implemented,” The Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Natalya Nikonorova stated during a round-table event on the results of two years of the Minsk agreements implementation, as RIA Novosti news agency informed.
According to the DPR Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, the work done by these working groups is essentially formal. For example, the heavy artillery was withdrawn only in two out of 3 zones, where the separation of forces was supposed to take place. In the third zone, the Ukrainian side did nothing. Natalya Nikonorova has characterized the situation around the political working group as critical. As an example, she mentioned the case of “Steinmeier’s road map”, the discussion of which was included in the agenda 14 times starting from September 2016. But each time, the Ukrainian side has been blocking its substantive discussion under different pretexts. Commenting on another round of talks in Minsk held on February 15th, Natalya Nikonorova stated that “there was no significant breakthrough during the yesterday meeting, especially in the political working group.”
Recall that the heads of the state in the “Normandy format”, Germany, France, Ukraine, and Russia, signed the Package of Measures for the Implementing of the Minsk Agreement (Minsk-II) on February 12th, 2015. The aim of the agreement is stop the escalation of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine. The clauses of the agreement include an immediate ceasefire, withdrawal of the heavy weaponry, release of all hostages, constitutional reform in Ukraine, and adopting permanent legislation on the special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
