SOLNECHNOGORSK /outside Moscow/, August 8. /TASS/: Kiev’s statements about "the incomprehension" of the Minsk accords proves that the country is not willing to resolve the Donbass crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
"They have a new story. Both the president and their representative to the Contact Group have said after the five years of the Minsk accords and after the five years of attempts to implement them, ‘We do not understand what is said in them.’ It happens when you have been implementing that for five years and then say, ‘I cannot quite grasp what is said in them. It would be good if that was explained to us once more.’ It shows that they do not want to resolve their own issue," she said.
When asked about the prospects for a solution to the intra-Ukrainian conflict, Zakharova pointed out that it would happen in case Ukraine wanted to find a solution to the crisis in her regions, or Donbass.
"Once politicians, public officials in Kiev and, most importantly, the people eventually realize that those are the citizens of their country, who have the same rights and the same responsibilities and who have suffered enough. When they all understand that and suddenly remember that in 2015 the international community hammered out a plan for settling their domestic conflict and said that it was ready to help, and when they begin to gradually implement the Minsk agreements, they will get it. We are ready for that and have always been ready. We have no questions," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.
The diplomat emphasized that Russia, as a country that took part in drafting the Minsk agreements, "has gone its part of the road and would go further on."
"The other members of the international community - France and Germany - have stated that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements, but they must be implemented. Who should implement them? The parties to the conflict, or Kiev and Donbass," she concluded.
The Minsk Agreements are the cornerstone of the Donbass conflict settlement. They envisage a complete ceasefire, withdrawal of military equipment, amnesty, restoration of economic ties, adopting a comprehensive constitutional reform in Ukraine which would result in decentralization with a special status for separate areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions. Lately, Ukrainian representatives repeatedly said that the agreements should be modernized before they are implemented.
At the same time, authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) continue to hammer the message home that the Minsk Agreements have no alternative in looking for ways to settle the domestic conflict and are not subject to any change. Russia also shares this point of view.
