There is no need to negotiate with us from position of blackmailing – Daria Morozova

Comments and statements of the Ombudsman News

A high degree of competence and a culture of communication have always been the hallmarks of diplomats. Unfortunately, this is difficult to attribute to the current behavior of the Ukrainian delegation during the meeting of the humanitarian group. First of all, this was demonstrated by the groundlessly boorish statements of representatives of Ukraine to the outgoing coordinator of the group Toni Frisch. I hope that such insinuations will not affect the productivity of his successor in this post in the future.

I would also very much like our opponents to finally realize that it is simply impossible to negotiate without mutual understanding and mutual respect for each other.

In fact, the Ukrainian delegation in its current composition (and today’s meeting has confirmed this) is the main stumbling block on the way to the implementation of the Minsk agreements. This thesis was especially relevant in terms of resolving the issue of procedural “cleansing” of persons released in the course of previous exchanges. I consider it is necessary to once again point out to the Ukrainian delegation the fact that there is no need to negotiate with us from the position of blackmailing, as Mr. Kravchuk recently tried to do.

No progress on subsequent exchanges will be made until all previous exchanges have been completed.

I strongly recommend that our opponents adopt this axiom. I would like to remind that Ukraine itself initiated a procedural “cleansing” back in 2017, and we expect this state to fulfill its obligations fully.