SOCHI, October 19. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday he does not consider that the participation of Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov in a ceremony of opening a monument to Donbass heroes could discredit Russia as a mediator in the Ukrainian conflict settlement.
"No, we don’t think so," Peskov said. "The heroes - as the monument’s authors say - defended Donbass from aggression of extremists who came from Ukraine’s side. You know what events provoked all what is happening now in Ukraine’s southeast."
"Russia was and remains a guarantor of the Minsk agreements and continues its consistent line to fully contribute to the implementation of the Minsk deal by the parties that are obliged to do this," he stressed.
On October 16, Surkov took part in a ceremony in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to unveil the first-ever monument to the fighters of self-defense forces in war-torn eastern Ukraine.