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Ukraine keeps arguing Minsk agreements are against its interests — Russian diplomat

"if the task of building peace on the domestic soil is among Ukraine’s national interests, there should be no place for such claims," Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said

UNITED NATIONS, February 17. /TASS/. Kiev is trying to persuade the West the Minsk agreements run counter to the interests of Ukraine, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday.

"Ukrainian politicians have been systematically persuading the West that the Minsk agreements run counter to the interests of Ukraine. But if the task of building peace on the domestic soil is among Ukraine’s national interests, there should be no place for such claims," he said.

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.

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Ukraine crisis Foreign policy

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