PARIS, June 10. /TASS/. Kiev’s actions are evidence of rejection of Donetsk and Luhansk, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told journalists on Wednesday ahead of the Normandy Four meeting.
"The gesture, the proposals on the table put forward by representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk open real possibilities for searching a compromise if Kiev really wants it," Karasin said. "Because we have some uncertainty about the real intentions of the Kiev authorities. Everything that is done in reality serves as evidence that Kiev rejects Donetsk and Luhansk," the diplomat noted.
"New proposals provide common ground for joint search [for compomise] based on respect, on equal dialogue, and we will support that," he stated.
Karasin noted that the Contact Group in Minsk and its subgroups have hardly achieved anything significant due to Kiev’s political juggling.
"What is happening in Minsk cannot but cause disappointment, because although sub-groups gather for meetings and the Contact Group summarizes the results, we cannot say some significant results have been achieved," he said. "Mostly this is a result of Kiev’s political juggling. On the one hand Kiev vows commitment to the Minsk Accords, but in reality it blocks the implementation of these agreements."
While preparing for a meeting of the Contact Group in Minsk planned at the end of this week, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics announced new proposals on the constitutional reform in Ukraine. A month ago, the republics already put forward several conditions. Their positions has not been described in more detail - DPR and LPR directly confirmed their readiness to remain part of Ukraine and asked Kiev to keep current leaders - Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky - on their posts.
The diplomat said Russia expects the meeting of the Normandy Four political directors will put pressures on Kiev for the sake of implementing the Minsk Accords.
"We expect that today’s meeting will persuade Kiev to move faster towards the implementation of the Minsk Accords of February 12," he said. "The Normandy group gathers for the sake of controlling and analyzing progress in negotiations by the Contact Group and the four working subgroups along the main tracks - humanitarian, security, constitutional reform and political, economic and social affairs."
Karasin said that taking part in today’s discussions will be OSCE special envoy Heidi Tagliavini and head of the OSCE’s special monitoring mission Ertugrul Apakan.
"They will present their judgements. We may express some wishes and proposals regarding where we should be moving on. We will report the results to the leaders of our countries. In a word, there is no easy and very crucial work ahead," he said.
"Time is ripe for practical decisions. Precious time for moving forward is running out. We must be aware of how dramatic the situation is. The more so, since the leaders of our states met in Minsk last February to accelerate progress. Possibly, by the end of this year we will have an outline of a peace political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis."