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Diplomat: Normandy Four meetings pointless while Kiev simulates activity

PRAGUE, June 27. /TASS/. Any meeting of the Normandy Four group (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) will be senseless without preliminary steps taken by Kiev with regard to implementation of the Minsk accords, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told TASS on Monday.

"The main key to settlement of the Ukraine crisis is in the hands of Kiev authorities. Until they do not take seriously the process negotiating implementation of the Minsk agreements and stop simulating activity, trying to dodge from doing anything concrete, any top meetings are meaningless," Karasin said noting that the latest summits in the Normandy Four format "manifested that influence and pressure should be exerted and Kiev should be persuaded to implement the (provisions) they signed in Minsk."

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DPR’s chief negotiator says no truce in Donbass is possible without political solutions

Earlier, simultaneously with US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s visits to Moscow and Kiev, appeals were heard from the Ukrainian and French capitals to convene a regular meeting of the Normandy Four group. Stephane Le Folle, the spokesman for French government, said that such a meeting might take place this June, including the US.

According to the diplomat, by saying that it is not ready to conduct a constitutional reform in Ukraine and pass a law on elections in Donbass, Kiev is making it clear to the US that it is not willing to obey them.

Earlier, Andrei Parubiy Parubiy told Nuland that Kiev is not ready to amend the Ukrainian constitution concerning decentralization and pass the law on elections in Donbass due to security problems in the region. Apart from that, he said he doubted the efficiency of further talks on the implementation of the Minsk-2 package without complete ceasefire in the country’s east.

"It means they are beginning to tell their American patrons right in the face that they don’t want to obey them," Karasin said.

The only way out of this situation, according to the Russian diplomat, is to continue pressure on Kiev. "It is necessary to exert political and meaningful pressure on the Kiev leaders to make them undertake responsibility," Karasin said. "There is no other way."

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Ukraine crisis Foreign policy

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