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DPR speaker: problem of reviving banking sector in Donbass is to be solved through talks

Earlier on Sunday, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine was ready to resume the work of the banking sector in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine

Andrei Purgin, speaker of the People’s Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Michael Pochuev/TASS

Andrei Purgin, speaker of the People’s Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic

© Michael Pochuev/TASS

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. Kiev can solve the problem of resuming the work of the banking sector in Donbass only through talks within the framework of the sectoral subgroup of the Contact Group on Ukraine, Andrei Purgin, speaker of the People’s Council (parliament) of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Sunday, commenting on pronouncements on that matter by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

"Yatsenyuk’s statement about Kiev’s being ready to resume the work of the banking sector in Donetsk and Luhansk is nothing but mere words. They should be taken with a great deal of skepticism," he told the Donetsk News Agency. "For two months in a row, Kiev has been failing to launch the work of the Contact Group’s subgroups that can facilitate the solution to this problem. Solutions to such issues as the re-launching of the banking sector in Donetsk can be reached only within the subgroups. And Kiev must be aware of that."

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Ukraine’s PM says Kiev ready to re-launch banking sector in Donetsk, Luhansk

Earlier on Sunday, Yatsenyuk said Ukraine was ready to resume the work of the banking sector in Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. "We are ready to re-launch the banking sector in Donetsk and Luhansk," he told the UKraina television channel.

He said the goal of the government was to reach peace in Donbass, to "give people normal life." Yatsenyuk noted that among the key conditions Kiev advanced for the settlement of the conflict in the country’s eastern regions was democratic local election in those regions and resuming its control at the border with Ukraine.

At a current stage, members of the Contact Group on the Ukrainian settlement are coordinating the conditions to launch four sectoral subgroups - on economic issues; on refuges, internally displaced persons and humanitarian assistance; on political issues; and on security issues.

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