LUGANSK, October 26. /TASS/. Ukraine refuses to discuss a roadmap for the settlement of the conflict in Donbass because it is probably planning to escalate the conflict, Rodion Miroshnik, who represents the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic in the Contact Group’s political subgroup, said on Tuesday after the subgroup’s meeting.
"The political subgroup finished its meeting in the Minsk format an hour earlier than planned," he said. According to Miroshnik, the subgroup’s OSCE coordinator, French diplomat Sylvie-Agnes Berman, states that the dialogue was stopped because Ukraine’s representative to the political subgroup Andrei Kostin refused to continue the discussion. "Ukraine wrecked the discussion of the settlement roadmap," he noted.
"The Ukrainian negotiator used various tricks to divert the dialogue from the discussion of the roadmap," he stated. "As a matter of fact, nothing new happened. Only Ukraine’s plans are becoming more evident and clear. Kiev is deliberately seeking to ruin any formats of agreements and their implementation."
He noted that Tuesday’s talks were held amid shelling attacks staged by Ukrainian troops at the contact line that caused damage to residential houses and infrastructure. "And this is a clear sign that as soon as the arsenal of political and diplomatic measures is exhausted, escalation of the conflict will begin. It looks like Kiev’s actions are geared toward this," Miroshnik added.