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Resuming Minsk negotiations can bring peace to Ukraine — opposition

Co-Chair of the Ukrainian Opposition Platform - For Life party Yuri Boyko stressed that the current Ukrainian authorities had no political will for settling the conflict

KIEV, October 29. /TASS/. The Minsk negotiations must be unblocked to bring peace to Donbass, Co-Chair of the Ukrainian Opposition Platform - For Life party, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Yuri Boyko said on Friday.

"We (Opposition Platform - For Life party) have been talking for a long time that a tragedy and escalation on the demarcation line would happen sooner or later if the political route was not given priority. If one army stands in front of another army, then someone will fire sooner or later. Resuming the Minsk process is essential for bringing peace to Donbass. All participants confirmed it, all our international partners, including US officials," Boyko said in an interview with the Ukrainian Nash TV channel.

He stressed that the current Ukrainian authorities have no political will for settling the conflict, "this has already led to blocking the Minsk and Normandy formats." "Now the Normandy process is almost blocked, while there is no Minsk format apart from accusations and loud diatribes. It just keeps still, which is a very dangerous situation, since we don’t have a "frozen" but a long-simmering conflict which every now and again ignites," the politician noted.

According to the deputy, the current authorities do nothing to bring peace, they "simply deceived their voters." "To restore the peace and unity of Ukraine, the leadership of our country must have the political will because Donbass is a Ukrainian region where our people live. Our citizens are suffering hardships and have become victims of the hostilities. It has long been necessary to halt the confrontation, to adopt the laws stipulated by the Minsk agreements and those reached in the Normandy format," Boyko stressed. At the same time, he said that the Opposition Platform - For Life party is ready to "conduct a dialogue and adopt laws that will unblock the peace process."

Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Kiev’s Western patrons should present a demand to the Ukrainian authorities to cease attempts to stymie the Donbass peaceful settlement. According to him, Ukraine is now adopting laws that directly ban the fulfillment of the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

 

The situation in Donbass worsened at the end of February, with armed exchanges involving the use of mortars and grenade launchers registered every day. The conflicting sides blamed the aggravation of the situation on each other.