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Russian envoy emphasizes Moscow has no commitments in Minsk accords

In its attempts to justify its inactivity in fulfilling the Minsk accords, Kiev is shifting responsibility onto Russia, the diplomat pointed out

VIENNA, May 6. /TASS/. Russia’s Permanent Representative at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Lukashevich said at an online meeting of the organization’s Permanent Council on Thursday that the Minsk accords on settling the situation in southeastern Ukraine had no mention of Russia’s commitments.

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"We urge to read the documents of the Minsk Package attentively. They mention no word about any commitments of the Russian Federation whatsoever. Thus, pursuant to the Package of Measures, such commitments are undertaken by the parties to the conflict, which are the Ukrainian authorities and the armed forces of Ukraine, on the one hand, and representatives of separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and their armed formations, on the other hand," the Russian envoy stressed.

In its attempts to justify its inactivity in fulfilling the Minsk accords, Kiev is shifting responsibility onto Russia, the diplomat pointed out. He added that the Ukrainian authorities were assisted in this attempt by foreign patrons from among some OSCE member states "which are deliberately manipulating facts and distorting the substance of the Minsk accords."

"The calls for Russia to respond to the allegedly ‘constructive approach’ displayed by Ukraine and fulfill some commitments under the Minsk Package cannot be explained by anything else," Lukashevich pointed out.

A deadlock situation persists in settling the crisis in Ukraine as Kiev still only imitates its aspiration for peace, avoiding dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk on the terms of further existence, Lukashevich remarked.

"In the meantime, Ukraine’s representatives continue to be the sole participants in the negotiations who purposefully state their desire to change the structure of the existing formats on settling the situation and rewrite the Minsk accords and even quit the Minsk process at all," he noted.

On May 6, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the need to seek Moscow’s compliance with international commitments. Russia has frequently stressed at the highest level that it is committed to the 2015 Minsk accords as they have no alternative in settling the internal conflict in Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a party to the intra-Ukrainian conflict in Donbass and consistently stands for the complete and strict implementation of the Minsk accords, which it signed as a mediator in the peace process.

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