Today’s meeting of the Working Group on humanitarian issues clearly showed that the agreements reached within the framework of the Minsk process are not a dogma for Kiev. During the negotiations, the Ukrainian side demonstrated an openly destructive position on the issue of procedural “cleansing” of persons displaced to the territory of the DPR during the exchanges of 2019-2020 years. Ukraine not only “nullifies” the possibility of a breakthrough in this key topic, but also neutralizes the positive results that were achieved earlier.
Thus, in the course of the negotiations, representatives of the official Kiev announced information about the persons displaced to the DPR during the exchanges on 29 December 2019 and 16 April 2020, against whom criminal prosecution is still ongoing in Ukraine. However, it was not about the procedural “cleansing” of these citizens, as required by the exchange mechanism agreed and enshrined in the Protocols according to the Contact Group meetings. In contrast, Kiev explained in detail why it cannot apply this procedure to formerly held supporters of the DPR.
I interpret this position of Ukraine as an attempt to change the agreements signed on the eve of the 2019 and 2020 exchanges. That is, Kiev actually refuses to honour its commitments, justifying its inaction by non-existent legal collisions.
I consider the position of the representatives of Ukraine unacceptable. The arguments, to which Kiev refers, speaking about the impossibility of procedural “cleansing”, to put it mildly, are not entirely justified and look like excuses. I insist on carrying out a procedural “cleansing” of persons displaced to the territory of the DPR in the course of the 2019 and 2020 exchanges as soon as possible.
