WASHINGTON, April 30. /TASS/. The White House believes that the Ukrainian government bears the economic responsibility for Donbas, National Security Council Senior Director for International Economics Rory MacFarquhar told a seminar on the Ukrainian economy in Washington on Wednesday.
The eastern Ukrainian region currently lives in the conditions of a financial and economic blockade on the part of the Kiev authorities. Lifting the blockade is one of the provisions of the package of measures on implementing the Minsk agreements.
"That’s a very easy question. Donbas is Ukrainian territory and Russians have signed a sequence of agreements recognizing Donbas as Ukrainian territory. And there needs to be a process that reintegrates Donbas into Ukrainian control. That process is laid out in the Minsk agreements and that means what the international community including Russia has committed itself to supporting," he said.
Ukraine will be fully responsible for the reconstruction work in the region, he said. "We are working very closely with the Ukrainian government on the Minsk implementation," MacFarquhar said.
"These agreements have certain timeframe and we hope that there will be implementation in that timeframe. That will include economic elements that are in Ukraine’s responsibility," he said.
The Minsk agreements also envisage ceasefire, heavy weaponry withdrawal, a constitutional reform in Ukraine and local elections in certain areas of Donbas, an amnesty for participants of the conflict and some other measures.