A new round of negotiations of the Humanitarian Subgroup of the Contact Group on peaceful settlement in Donbass took place in Minsk.
At the first half of the meeting, Ukrainian representatives almost immediately blocked discussion of all issues on the agenda. The Ukrainian side again refused to provide their official position on three key issues, namely the “all for all” exchange, adding citizens of the Russian Federation to the exchange list and placing detainees into categories. We have been waiting for their response to these issues for several months. After that, Ukrainian experts left the conference room under far-fetched pretexts.
I would like to note that the responsibility for failure to implement the sixth paragraph of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements fully rests with the Ukrainian side, which systematically ignores the meetings of the Humanitarian Subgroup. The work of the Ukrainian representative, who has not been participating in the negotiations for a long time, is only about highlight, though ungrounded, declarations in social media. OSCE Coordinator Tony Frisch has refuted those statements at today’s meeting of the Contact Group.
Following the meeting, I can conclude that the Ukrainian side is still unwilling to resolve humanitarian issues that are crucial for people on both sides of the line of contact.
