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DPR Foreign Ministry says Kiev ignores Contact Group’s instructions

Donetsk will continue insisting on direct dialogue and the implementation of Minsk Accords

© EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

DONETSK, August 3 /TASS/. Ukraine has ignored the instructions of the Contact Group and the OSCE coordinator to present its stance at today’s meeting in Minsk, Natalya Nikonorova, the acting foreign minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Wednesday.

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"Unfortunately, as for today, Ukraine has ignored all instructions received from the Contact Group and the OSCE coordinator: it refused to submit a single official document, including the Ukrainian stance on the theme of the previous negotiations - media’s participation in the election process," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Nikonorova as saying.

Nikonorova characterized the recent negotiations of the political group of the Contact Group held in Minsk as a new stage of substituting notions by Ukrainian representatives. "Ukraine explained that it had no stance on the talks’ agenda because it had not been defined by the "Normandy four" group (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine) despite the fact that the working groups (in Minsk) had been set up for developing and coordinating projects. There is no other alternative to it," Nikonorova stressed.

According to her, Kiev’s representatives demonstrated total misunderstanding of the negotiating process in Minsk at today’s talks. "The current negotiators from Ukraine have no idea about the course of these negotiations. For example, they are denying the very possibility of regulations in the work of the special groups. The rules and regulations, however, were drafted and suggested by OSCE representatives in the Contact Group," Nikonorova said.

According to her, Donetsk will continue insisting on direct dialogue and the implementation of Kiev’s commitments undertaken during the signing of a package of measures (Minsk-2) as well as on the approval of regulations for the special groups’ work.

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