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British MP says West should oblige Kiev to adhere to its Minsk commitments

None of the items in the political settlement have been carried out as of yet

LONDON, August 17. /TASS/. The West must hold Ukraine to account to see Minsk2 agreements succeed, MP Daniel Kawczynski, member of Foreign Affairs Committee House of Commons, told TASS on Wednesday.

"We are only too aware from our own BBC and other UK news channels of the allegations made against Russia and Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine but we are starved of information and analysis of the shortcomings of the Ukraine leadership and some of the infringements they are perpetrating," the British politician said.

"Minsk 2 can only succeed if Western and NATO countries engage with those countries to try to resolve the dispute but also publically hold Ukraine to account when they are culpable of mistakes," Daniel Kawczynski added.

He said relations between Russia and the UK "have been put into the deep freeze" as a result of developments in eastern Ukraine and Crimea’s accession to Russia. "We have however ostracised Russia without doing enough to directly engage with Moscow and to use our outsider perspective to try to help bring the two parties together to engage in greater dialogue and understanding," the politician went on.

"The Minsk II Agreement has been extensively supported by Germany and France, and the United Kingdom has not been an integral interlocutor in these talks to the extent that Germany and France have been. That I believe has been a mistake. We need to show the Russians that although we disagree with them over what has been happening in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea we are determined nevertheless to work with the Russians to bring about a normalization of relations as quickly as possible," the parliamentarian stressed.

The so-called Minsk agreements are underlying for the settlement in Donbass. They envisage not only the ceasefire and pullback of weapons, an amnesty and restoration of economic ties, but also a deep constitutional reform in Ukraine to decentralize power, giving a special status to separate districts of the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

However, all this just remains a plan, as the sides are systematically violating the ceasefire regime. The Ukrainian side has refused outright to implement the clause on amnesty and continues the economic blockade of Donbass.

None of the items in the political settlement have been carried out as of yet - there has been no constructional reform, the law on a special status to the region has not been enacted, the law on the elections in Donbass has not been passed.

Instead, citing a need to ensure security, Ukraine insists on restoration of its control over a section of the border with Russia, although under the Minsk agreements it should happen only after the elections.