KIEV, November 26. /TASS/. All the countries involved in the Donbass conflict settlement recognized that the Minsk agreements have no alternative but the so-called party of war in Ukraine keeps on calling to ignore them, Ukrainian Choice activist organization leader Viktor Medvedchuk said on Sunday.
"The Minsk agreements have been recognized as mandatory in the entire world. But for Ukraine, where ‘the party of war’ claims they run counter to the country’s interests, hence, Kiev is not obliged to fulfill them," he wrote on his Facebook account.
According to Medvedchuk, even the US Department of State said that full implementation of the Minsk agreements is the goal of the United States and its Special Representative Kurt Volker. Thus, he cited the US embassy in Moscow as saying after Volker’s meeting with Russia Presidential Representative Vladislav Surkov in Belgrade that "there has always been a need for a combination of political and security measures to be taken under Minsk."
The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements. The package was agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.
The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including prisoner exchange in the all-for-all format, local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.
The roadmap however has not been implemented until now, since the Ukrainian side is dodging implementation of political provisions of the agreements, citing security problems as a reason.