LUGANSK, December 3. /TASS/. The Ukrainian leadership will begin a real dialogue with Donbass only after receiving permission from Washington, head of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik said in an interview with TASS, commenting on Kiev’s proposals to get the US involved in settling the conflict.
"One shouldn’t be disingenuous and pretend that we don’t realize how dependent Kiev is on the US’ decisions. If they (the US leadership - TASS) really want to help settle the conflict, they should allow Kiev to negotiate. No imitating, no hiding behind somebody’s back, no pontificating at international venues about which aggression they expect and from where but openly sitting at the negotiating table and beginning to reach an agreement," the LPR leader said.
He emphasized that real steps on settling the conflict are possible only on the condition of direct dialogue between Kiev and Donbass. "The role of all others - both the US, and the EU, and Russia - is only in facilitating the process of reaching peaceful agreements," he stressed.
The foundation of settlement
In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against Donbass. The Minsk Package of Measures (Minsk-2), signed by the participants of the Contact Group on February 12, 2015, is the foundation for settling the conflict in the region. The document, in addition to a ceasefire and the withdrawal of military equipment, provides for a profound constitutional reform in Ukraine with the resulting decentralization of power, taking into account the special status of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions as well as the holding of elections there. This plan has not been implemented to this day, including due to the position of the Ukrainian side which, contrary to the order established by the Minsk Accords, refuses to implement political points until security issues are settled.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky repeatedly expressed the intention to involve the US in the Normandy Format (Germany, Russia, Ukraine, France). At the September 2 briefing in Washington, the Ukrainian leader said that during talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden he proposed several formats of engaging US representatives in settling the Donbass conflict to him, yet did not give a direct answer to a question on whether that meant specifically the Normandy Format. The American side has not yet confirmed any intention to get involved.
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that Kiev needed to engage the US in the Normandy Format in order to move away from implementing the Minsk Accords. At the same time, the Russian diplomatic agency pointed out that Moscow would welcome Washington’s involvement in "Normandy discussions" if this would facilitate the implementation of the obligations taken on by Kiev.