UNITED NATIONS, February 23. /TASS/. The fact that there are no prospects for Kiev’s implementation of the Minsk agreement became evident when the Ukrainian authorities openly announced that they would not be complying with its provisions, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday.
"Recently the Ukrainian leaders have stopped being shy and said directly on camera that they are not going to fulfil their obligations. The latest confirmation may be the fact that the Ukrainian permanent representative unambiguously confirmed such intentions during the UN Security Council session, which we organized on February 17, whereas our Western colleagues did not even call on Ukraine to implement the Minsk [accords]. It became evident that there is no longer any prospect for that document to be implemented," Nebenzya said at a meeting of the UN General Assembly.
The Minsk agreements are the cornerstone of the Donbass peace process. The deal outlines moves to declare a ceasefire, withdraw weapons, declare amnesty, restore economic ties and conduct constitutional reform in Ukraine through dialogue with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR), aimed at decentralizing power and providing a special status to certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. However, the negotiation process has actually stalled because of Kiev’s refusal to fulfill the political provisions of the Minsk accords.
In particular, Kiev rejects holding any direct dialogue with the DPR and the LPR, opposes the consolidation of the regions’ special status in the constitution, and also demands that a section of the border with Russia in Donbass be placed under Ukrainian control until the political part of the deal is implemented.