MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. Prospects of implementing the Minsk 2 peace deal on Ukraine cannot be seen now, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Military Academy of the General Staff on Thursday.

"The prospects of settlement and implementation of the Minsk agreements are not visible now," Lavrov said. "First, this is because the Ukrainian leadership lacks political will and a realistic vision of the country’s future," he said.

"This is also due its attempts to search for solving Ukraine’s problems not based on pragmatic interests for the sake of national accord and welfare, but upon instructions of foreign sponsors who have no idea about the aspirations of Russians and Ukrainians," he said.

The February 2015 Minsk agreements lay the foundation for a peaceful settlement in Donbass. The deal envisages not only a ceasefire and a withdrawal of weapons, amnesty and restoration of economic ties, but also deep constitutional reforms in Ukraine to decentralize power, granting special status to certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in the country’s east. However, all this just remains a plan. The Ukrainian side has refused to implement the point on amnesty and continues to economically blockade Donbass.

None of the items in the political settlement have been carried out as of yet - there has been no constitutional reform, the law on a special status to the region has not been enacted and the law on elections in Donbass has not been passed. Instead, citing the need to ensure security, Ukraine insists on restoration of its control over a section of the border with Russia, although under the Minsk agreements this should happen only after the elections.