DONETSK/LUGANSK, January 31. /TASS/. The United States is trying to please Kiev by disrupting the peace talks process based on the Minsk agreements, foreign ministers of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics said on Thursday commenting on a statement of US Special Representative for Ukraine Kurt Volker on a new plan to resolve the crisis.
Last week, Special Representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Martin Sajdik put forward a range of initiatives replacing the Minsk peace deal. The plan allegedly implies involving the United Nations in the process by deploying a police mission to Ukraine and creating an EU-sponsored agency on the region’s reconstruction. On Wednesday, Volker backed the initiative.
"The US State Department Representative for Ukraine confirmed the desire of the US and also Ukraine to disavow the Minsk agreements and disrupt the peace talks process," Foreign Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Natalya Nikonorova said. "Volker has been a supporter of the most destructive and counterproductive initiatives on Donbass. It’s not surprising that this time the US State Department’s special envoy supports a plan, which no one understood and backed, even the OSCE and the UN, since it fully contradicts the provisions of the [Minsk] Package of Measures. "
According to the top diplomat, the fact that the Sajdik plan mirrors the statements of Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko calling for sending a UN mission to Donbass arouse suspicions that "both ideas have one author."
"The attempts to promote destructive ideas of Kiev and its overseas sponsors have nothing to do with the implementation of the Minsk agreements and directly contradict them," she stressed.
In his turn, Foreign Minister of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Vladislav Deinego noted that Volker has failed the talks on imposing the participation of the UN mission in resolving the Donbass conflict.
"Therefore, he is trying to use others to push the US State Department’s destructive ideas, which are clearly aimed not at resolving the conflict, but at exacerbating the situation in Donbass and increasing pressure on Russia and leading to further rounds of anti-Russian sanctions," he stressed.
According to the LPR foreign minister, the attempts are unlikely to be successful. "The Minsk agreements, approved by the UN Security Council resolution and supported by the leaders of the Normandy format, have no alternative," he said. "The entire international community confirms this fact. Even Mr. Volker, despite the attempts to push the plan of undermining the Minsk process, is forced to acknowledge that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements.".