KIEV, August 18. /TASS/. Ukraine’s opposition party has accused President Vladimir Zelensky and his Servant of the People party of being unwilling to implement their campaign pledges and do anything to settle the conflict in Donbass.
"Vladimir Zelensky and his Servant of the People party received a strong support from Ukrainian citizens during the elections. But once at power, the president and his political team are unwilling to implement their campaign pledges. Instead of presenting a peace plan and plunging into direct talks with Donetsk, Lugansk and Moscow, the current authorities are now saying that the conflict cannot be settled swiftly," the Opposition Platform For Life said in a statement posted on its website on Sunday.
The statement came after the Servant of the People’s leader, Dmitry Razumkov, had said that it would take time to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Such words, according to the Opposition Platform, echo the position of Ukraine’s former president, Pyotr Poroshenko. "Obviously, Ze’s (an unofficial nickname for President Zelensky in Ukraine - TASS) rhetoric and actions in no way differ from those of the previous Proshenko regime. Poroshenko and other officials of the previous regime had been saying in the recent years that a path to peace was thorny and the conflict in Donbass would last long. The previous authorities used this rhetoric to hide their inability to bring peace to the country," the part said, adding that such a position had led to Poroshenko’s political fiasco at the elections.
"Ukraine needs peace today," the Opposition Platform stressed and recalled that in January it had advanced a concept plan for peace settlement in Donbass on the basis of the Minsk agreements. "Since then, our peace plan has been widely discussed both in Europe and in Russia. It was met with understanding by international partners and was supported in Donetsk, Lugansk and Moscow," it said.
The party demanded the current authorities "implement their campaign pledge and finally begin to settle the conflict. The party once again expressed readiness to extend its peace plan and promote the negotiating process. "The authorities must bring peace to the country and ensure Ukraine’s development. All other ways will only lead to a dust-heap of history. If the Ze regime is unable to accomplish the tasks set by the Ukrainian citizens, Ukraine does have a political force that is prepared to lead the country along the path of peace, democracy and socio-economic development," the Opposition Platform emphasized.
In an interview with Ukraine’s New Time media outlet, the Servant of the People’s leader Dmitry Razumkov said it would take quite a time to settle the conflict in Donbass since "it is a long path the entire country should travel.".