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Russian official: Donbass security is impossible without political settlement

The need to ensure security can hardly justify a delay in holding elections in Ukraine's Donbass

Boris Gryzlov ITAR-TASS/Alexey Nikolsky

Boris Gryzlov

© ITAR-TASS/Alexey Nikolsky

MINSK, March 23 /TASS/. Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s representative in the trilateral Contact Group for settlement in eastern Ukraine, believes that the need to ensure security can hardly justify a delay in holding the Donbass elections.

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Lavrov: Minsk-2 accords should not be revised

"Today everybody agrees that the settlement of the Ukraine conflict should be based on the Minsk agreements. It is fundamentally important that a package of measures [to implement the September 2014 Minsk agreements] which was approved by the ‘Normandy format’ leaders be implemented in full measure with due consideration for all the points," Gryzlov told journalists after the Contact Group’s meeting in Minsk.

According to him, it is impossible to pretend that some provisions of the package of measures [also known as Minsk-2] should be implemented completely by ‘one hundred percent’, so to speak, while others should remain practically non-existent.

"The Minsk agreements clearly point to the need of constitutional changes with decentralization being the key element; permanent legislation on the special status of separate districts of the Donbass region; amnesty supported by a law banning the persecution of participants in the Donbass events. Under the Minsk agreements, this should be the basis for resolving other problems envisaged by the package of measures," Gryzlov said adding that no one was trying to belittle the security factor.

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German FM: Military units in Donbass must be disengaged

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