MOSCOW, February 9. /TASS/. Washington's statements make it clear that the United States wants the Minsk Agreements to be revised even though it may undermine the peace process in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday.
She pointed to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's remark that the implementation of the Minsk Agreements required "the appropriate sequencing."
"It is strange how the US is trying to find a sequence in a document where the entire sequence of steps is spelled out for all parties," Zakharova noted. "Such remarks, and especially their synchronicity, make one thing clear: the US wants the Package of Measures to be revised, which may lead to a collapse of the peace process. All this encourages the Kiev regime to engage in more escapades, first and foremost against their own people, as well as against international law and common sense," the diplomat stressed.
The diplomat also mentioned statements by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, who had ruled out providing special status to Donbass and said that dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk was not mandated by the Minsk accords.
Zakharova emphasized that Kiev's "US sponsor" encouraged its contempt for the Minsk Agreements. She added that Germany and France were also failing to show an appropriate reaction to the Kiev authorities' statements.
Efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Donbass are based on the Minsk Agreements, which particularly include moves to declare a ceasefire, withdraw weapons, declare an amnesty, restore economic ties and conduct constitutional reform in Ukraine through dialogue with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR, LPR), aimed at decentralizing power and providing a special status to certain districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. However, the negotiation process has actually stalled because of Kiev's refusal to fulfill the political provisions of the Minsk accords. In particular, Kiev is reluctant to build any direct dialogue with the DPR and LPR and enshrine the region's special status in the constitution and demands to have control of Donbass' border with Russia before the implementation of the political provisions of the accords.