MINSK, September 18. /TASS/. At Wednesday’s regular meeting of the Contact Group seeking peace for east Ukraine, Kiev derailed the implementation of the agreements made by advisers to the Normandy Four leaders, Russia’s Plenipotentiary Representative to the Group Boris Gryzlov said after the meeting.
"The main outcome of the Contact Group’s meeting is that Kiev’s representatives refused to put their signatures under ‘the Steinmeier formula,’ or in other words, they refused to negotiate the procedure of legal and factitious entrenchment of the special status of Donbass," he said.
"It was the document which was approved by political advisers to the Normandy Four leaders on September 11 and recommended for signing by the Contact Group."
"By doing so, Kiev derailed also the adoption of an agreement on disengagement of forces in Petrovskoye and Zolotoye, as the security issues should be synchronized with political issues. That means that both issues should be solved simultaneously, at one meeting," he explained.
Gryzlov recalled that the Normandy Four proposal included provisions for politics and security issues.
"With its steps, Kiev has jeopardized the Normandy Four summit, as the condition for a summit was success in solving these two issues," he added.
Russia’s envoy pointed out that the permanent special status of Donbass based on Ukraine’s corresponding constitutional reform had been stipulated by the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements (Minsk-2), in particular in its Item 11.
"In other words, Kiev has embarked on the path of a gross violation of the Minsk accords, in spite of declaring commitment to them," he said.
In 2015, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the then German foreign minister, suggested a special procedure to enforce special status to Donbass. Thus, special status should be granted to that region of Ukraine first on a temporary basis on the day of local elections there. Special status will be granted permanently after the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) publishes a report confirming the legitimacy of election results.