SINGAPORE, November 15. /TASS/. Russia will work with any new Ukrainian authorities, there is no other solution to the Donbass problem than the peaceful one, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters at a news conference following the East Asia Summit.
"Nevertheless, we believe there is no other way, and the parties will have to come to terms with each other anyway. I hope that people who will lead the country in the future, whoever they are, … will arrive at the conclusion that there is no other way than the peaceful one, and it is essential to implement the Minsk agreements," the head of state said.
According to Putin, the current authorities in Kiev are unable to do something to resolve the situation in southeastern Ukraine. "As long as such people remain in power in Kiev, we can hardly count on a peaceful solution to the issues in these territories," he said. However, there is no alternative to peace talks, the Russian leader pointed out.
Putin expressed his disappointment with the fact that "the incumbent Ukrainian president had shown neither desire nor willingness to implement the Minsk agreements." "[Ukraine’s] Verkhovna Rada passed the law on a special status for Donbass, but the president is reluctant to enact it, I don’t know why," the head of state said.
Putin refrained from forecasting whether the situation in Ukraine will change after the presidential election there. "If another person comes, he will probably take into account what is happening now," he said. "Whether or not the current president will be able to make an effort and change his attitude towards that, I don’t know either. You’d better ask him."
Putin believes that the Western countries should condemn not elections in Donbass, but political assassinations there.
"As far as somebody’s criticism of those elections is concerned, we haven’t heard any condemnation of the political assassinations that take place in the territories of the self-proclaimed republics. That’s a real problem," Putin said. "First, there must be condemnation of the killings that take place there, the politically motivated ones."
In his opinion, the elections in Donbass were inevitable, because they were the local people’s response to the political situation in the country. He also remarked that holding a Normandy format meeting now, as an election campaign was in progress in Ukraine, would make no sense at all.
"Generally speaking, the Ukrainian authorities have shown no wish so far to implement the Minsk Accords. They have been doing nothing for the implementation of those agreements. Nothing is happening," he said. "Even the law on the special status of Donbass the Ukrainian parliament voted for has not come into effect yet. In the meantime, it is a key settlement element."
Putin said it was regrettable everybody was expecting Russia’s compliance with the Minsk Accords but at the same time preferred to turn a blind eye on the Kiev authorities’ idleness.
Prisoners exchange
Putin has said that the impossibility of the all-for-all exchange of detainees stems from the current Kiev authorities’ reluctance to do so.
"The current Kiev authorities have no desire to exchange illegally detained individuals," the said answering reporters’ questions following his visit to Singapore.
According to the Russian leader, the all-for-all exchange formula is correct. "However, something entirely different happens now. The matter is that the Ukrainian authorities have declared part of those people who are kept in Kiev prisons, in various institutions without trial, offenders who will be subject to criminal prosecution under Ukraine’s laws. They are removed from the lists of exchanged individuals," Putin said.
Representatives of Donbass do not agree with that, which is only natural, Putin noted. "They can just as easily launch the same judicial proceedings against any persons in their own custody, thus removing them from the exchange lists," Putin said.