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DPR describes Kiev’s stance on lifting blockade as non-constructive

DONETSK, June 20. /TASS/. The chairman of the People’s Council of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Vladimir Bidevka, said the Kiev government’s stance on lifting the region’s economic blockade was populist and non-constructive.

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Donetsk, Lugansk urge direct dialogue with Kiev on lifting Donbass blockade

"The preconditions for lifting the Donbass economic blockade, announced during the Minsk talks with [Kiev’s envoy] Leonid Kuchma, are not constructive. On the contrary, they appear to be standard populist declarations, regularly made by Ukraine’s political elite," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the official as saying in a statement.

Bidevka stressed that the economic blockade was initiated by Ukraine. Under those circumstances, the self-proclaimed republic had to intensify its ties with Russia to avert an economic collapse.

He said he doubted Kiev’s plans to lift the blockade.

"Everyone who is engaged in politics in that country in some form is inevitably guided by interests of oligarchs. I don’t think that lifting the blockade is really on the agenda," he said.

On June 19, a session of the Contact Group for the settlement in eastern Ukraine has taken place in Minsk. The next meeting of the Contact Group is set for July 2.

On the outcomes of the session, Leonid Kuchma said that Ukraine could reconsider its decision to introduce trade limitations in Donbass only after "Ukrainian assets return to the Ukrainian legal field.".

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