MOSCOW, February 17. /TASS/. Kiev still has no intention of taking action on the Minsk package of measures seven years after its signing and the Ukrainian authorities make no secret of it, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday.
"Regrettably, seven years after we have ever more reasons to suspect that the implementation of the Minsk package of measures is still absent from the agenda of our Ukrainian neighbors. They say so outright," he said.
In particular, he recalled a recent statement by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk Kiev was not considering any new bills regarding the status of Donbass.
"Incidentally, she also acknowledged that Kiev experiences no pressure from the West in favor of implementing the Minsk agreements," Vershinin added.
He also recalled a number of statements by Ukrainian officials Kiev was reluctant to hold direct talks with the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, contrary to the Minsk agreements’ provisions.
The plan for a peace settlement in Donbass relies on the Minsk agreements, achieved in February 2015. Among other things they envisage ceasefire, pullback of weapons, amnesty, resumption of economic relations and a flexible constitutional reform in Ukraine. The authorities in Kiev have repeatedly professed their readiness to act on these agreements, but in fact have ignored them for many years. In particular, Kiev refuses to have a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk and objects to granting Donbass a special status. Also, it procrastinates on the negotiations in the Contact Group.