The last session of the Humanitarian Group in 2021 did not fulfil even the low-key hopes for a constructive dialogue. Moreover, the Ukrainian side made every effort to definitively block the negotiation process in all directions of the humanitarian block.
Thus, the Kiev negotiators again refused to discuss the creation of a global mechanism for searching for persons missing as a result of the conflict in Donbass. Although it was this matter, by prior agreement of the parties, was submitted for consideration as a first item, which potentially can offer great opportunities for a substantive and fruitful discussion for the participants.
At the same time, the Ukrainian representatives offered to strike from the agenda as not relevant the key issue of the procedural “cleansing” of the participants of the 2019-2020 exchanges. It should be noted that this automatically implies the exclusion of the issue of prisoner exchange from the agenda of meeting, since the stumbling block here is only the Kiev’s non-performance of previous obligations to extinguish criminal liability of previously released people.
The final accent on this series of provocations was the statement of the Kiev representative about the need to agree on some convenient exchange mechanism for Kiev, since soon here will be more prisoners in Ukraine…
Such words, as well as the general line of behaviour of the Ukrainian side at the negotiating platform, are not susceptible to criticism. I regard such words and actions as an open demonstration of Kiev’s aggressive policy towards the residents of Donbass. I emphasize that the responsibility for the absence of any progress in the humanitarian sphere at the end of 2021 rests with the representatives of Ukraine.
