All news

Kiev refuses to enhance transparency of Contact Group’s work, says Russian envoy

Boris Gryzlov noted that Russia has "already suggested that the results of the Contact Group’s each meeting and the agreements should be clearly recorded in minutes of the meetings and that those documents should be available by the media"

MINSK, September 16. /TASS/. Kiev’s representatives to the Contact Group seeking peace for eastern Ukraine have turned down the proposal to make the Minsk peace talks more public and more open to the media, Russian Plenipotentiary Representative to the Contact Group Boris Gryzlov said on Wednesday after the Group’s regular video conference.

"Not long ago, the Ukrainian leadership’s representatives emphasized the importance of information openness for the Minsk process and about their intention to inform society about details of the talks," he said. "This statement can be welcomed. Moreover, over the recent years, it was the Ukrainian delegation that opposed this openness, twisting results of the Contact Group’s work."

"We have already suggested that the results of the Contact Group’s each meeting and the agreements should be clearly recorded in minutes of the meetings and that those documents should be available by the media," Gryzlov continued. "If Ukraine does seek information openness, it is time to implement this proposal. Also, representatives of Donbass proposed discussing the audio and video recording of our negotiations."

"Increased transparency of the Contact Group could have been already solved today," the Russian representative stressed. "However, our proposal was ignored. As of now, Kiev refuses any increase in the Contact Group’s openness. I would like to note that the OSCE representatives’ stance demonstrated today would not facilitate the solution of this principal issue," he concluded.