MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. Leader of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Igor Plotnitsky has invited United States Senator John McCain to visit the republic to monitor local elections, LuhanskInformCenter said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Plotnitsky asked journalists to convey his invitation to the US Senator. "You know, if the OSCE doesn’t want to come, I would like to ask you, as the free press, to convey my invitation to the most upright man, the world’s most democratic democrat who travels the world teaching the rules of democracy. The one who honestly defended US skies over Vietnam, the one who was so consumed by the thoughts about democracy that he did not notice how he was shot down and held captive in Vietnam where he must have learned the basics of democracy. I am speaking about Senator McCain," Plotnitsky said, commenting on the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights’ (ODIHR) refusal to monitor elections in his republic.
US Senator John McCain is known for his zealous calls for arms supply to Ukraine’s army holding a force operation in Donbas. He visited Kiev to speak with participants of the state coup.
Minsk agreements should be implemented by end of 2015
The implementation of the Minsk agreements on time is possible only if Kiev works toward it, Plotnitsky went on to say.
Answering a question on whether the Minsk agreements may be extended for 2016, Plotnitsky said that a lot can be done in the remaining time "if there is a will."
"We hope for that and think that the next meeting of the ‘Normandy Quartet’ may facilitate this. It is time to stop playing around and start implementing the agreements which you signed," Lugansk Inform Center quoted Plotnitsky as saying. "If such a decision is made and Ukraine feels that it received a command not to talk, but to do, then we can manage to do everything by the end of the year," he added.
Plotnitsky noted that LPR does not see a political undertone in Kiev’s request to postpone the videoconference of the Contact Group on settlement of the situation in Donbass planned for September 11. "There was probably no electricity, water and connections in Kiev. But in general, I think these are technical issues, and I don’t think that anyone should look for any political undertones in that," the LPR head said.
Minsk agreements on Ukraine
The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.
The Minsk accords envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.
The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.