MOSCOW, February 11 /TASS/. The Contact Group for Ukraine settlement has made some positive shifts at the ongoing negotiations in Minsk, Denis Pushilin, negotiator for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said in an interview aired live by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Wednesday.
"It would be too early to speak about any results. There’s progress but it remains to be seen if the result is going to be achieved," Pushilin said.
Commenting on Ukrainian press reports about the content of a draft agreement which the DPR and LPR representatives had allegedly prepared and handed over to Kiev the day before, Pushilin said that "such a document had previously existed but only in the form of recommendations by experts who collected the wishes of all the sides (in the settlement process)."
"They include the wishes of the Ukrainian side; the "Normandy four" and the militias," Pushilin said adding the sides had not used those recommendations as the basis for Wednesday discussions.
Asked what he thought about the disengagement line from where the troops could be pulled back, Pushilin said that one should not get as far ahead.
"it was noted that a demilitarized zone should be expanded. It means that heavy weapons should be pulled back at a greater distance," Pushilin explained adding that it was a compromise decision. "The disengagement line has suited neither of the sides so far.
"The proposal was made as a compromise solution," Pushilin stressed.