All news

No prospects of Minsk deal’s implementation under Zelensky, notes Russian expert

The new Ukrainian leader also said he would not sign a law on amnesty, another important point of the deal
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky Pyotr Sivkov/TASS
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky
© Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

MOSCOW, May 27. /TASS/. Moscow sees no prospects that the Minsk peace deal will be fulfilled under new Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Director of the Center for Current Policy Alexei Chesnakov said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Monday.

"There aren’t any prospects at all. Before assuming office he [Zelensky] had said in public that he would not implement them," Chesnakov said commenting on the prospects of fulfilling the Minsk agreements under Zelensky.

Zelensky emphasized that Donbass would not obtain a special political status, the expert said, stressing that "this is a direct and blatant refusal to meet a key and crucial requirement of the Minsk accords." The new Ukrainian leader also said he would not sign a law on amnesty, another important point of the deal. Zelensky also refused to hold talks with representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. "But the DPR and the LPR signed all Minsk agreements, a protocol, the 2014 memorandum and the 2015 Package of Measures, and also all documents of the Contact Group," the expert stressed.

The expert highlighted that the February 2015 deal envisaged the need for coordination of all aspects of settlement with representatives of the rebel Donbass regions.

Besides, Zelensky hinted that he is not planning to cancel the discriminatory language law, which violates the right of Donbass citizens to speak Russian stipulated by the Minsk agreements.

"Where are the Minsk agreements here? What has been left out of them? He shows disrespect for Donbass, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Germany, France and Russia, which stopped the war and outlined the ways of settling the problem of Ukraine’s southeast in a challenging discussion," Chesnakov stressed.

"Moreover, after Zelensky took up the reins, the Ukrainian army continues shelling Donbass. Everything now is like under Poroshenko."