MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. Russia is working intensively in all formats to settle the conflict in Donbass and accusations against it with being idle in the peace settlement process are totally unfair, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on Thursday.
"Here we’re dealing with a serious internal Ukrainian conflict and it would be very unfair to accuse us of sitting idle and doing nothing," he said. "It was us who initiated the Minsk accords. Our President Vladimir Putin spent seventeen hours then discussing the document."
"Also, we took an active part in the Contact Group and the Normandy Four format," Karasin said.
"Still, everything will hinge in the final run on Kiev’s ability and desire to build the bridges to Donetsk and Lugansk, to open dialogue with them and, what’s most important, to fulfill the obligations reflected in the Minsk accords," he said. "I don’t think Kiev will be able to hide away behind new schemes of formats of any kind because the world is developing the realization it is evading positive decisions that require strong will."
During a telephone briefing on January 29, the U.S. Department of State special envoy, Kurt Volker once against voiced the West’s claims that Moscow was allegedly doing little to settle the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine.