Today the meeting of the Working Group on humanitarian issues of the Contact Group was once again blocked due to the fault of the Ukrainian side. Because of the destructive behaviour of the representative of Kiev, Galina Tretyakova, once again, we didn’t achieve a breakthrough on any of the issues on the agenda, including the exchange of detainees and the search for missing persons.
It should be reminded that the crisis in the negotiations of the Humanitarian Group began precisely with the arrival of Tretyakova and has been going on for more than a year and a half. This time was more than enough to be sure that she is incompetent and inconsistent as a negotiator. Zero results of today’s meeting only highlighted that we will not achieve constructive dialogue with this representative of Kiev.
Taking into account the current situation in the Humanitarian Group, the DPR and LPR demanded that the Ukrainian side withdraw Galina Tretyakova from the negotiation process, replacing her with a professional representative with whom it’s possible to negotiate.
We believe that the most suitable candidate for this position is the candidacy of the political and public figure Viktor Medvedchuk, who has successful experience of working at the Minsk platform and conducting the exchange of detainees.
Confirming our commitment to productive work, we also returned to the proposal, which was suggested in January 2021, and announced our readiness to transfer as a gesture of goodwill to Mr. Medvedchuk or his representative three women who are now serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty in the territory of the Republics. It should be noted that it was Galina Tretyakova who previously blocked this initiative of the DPR and LPR.
If the Ukrainian authorities are really interested in breaking the deadlock in the humanitarian negotiations, then they have something to work on.
