No talks on Ukraine today: Kyiv says Minsk agreement signers should appear


Representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk are leaving Minsk as Ukraine’s delegation ‘failed to arrive’.

“We came here not empty-handed. We have the understanding how to hold the negotiations,” Denis Pushilin, a representative of the so-called DPR, told state-run news agency BelTA. “We are the official representatives who are authorized to participate in the negotiations. We have all the documents for that.”

“The heads of the republics are ready to come here when the agreement text is completed. Ukraine is unwilling to agree on the text,” Russian news agency TASS quoted LPR chief negotiator Vladislav Deinego.

Ukraine, however, has its own vision of the situation.

Holding the meeting was possible only on condition of the participation of signers of the Minsk agreements [including DPR, LPR leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky – Belsat], Interfax-Ukraine reports with a reference to Evgen Perebyinis, Spokesman for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.

“It is hard for me to comment what mission these persons [Pushilin and Deinego – Belsat] were undertaking when being in Minsk,” Perebyinis said commenting Pushilin’s statement on cancellation of the talks due to the absence of the Ukrainian side.

Ukraine’s signers of the Minsk agreements are ready to take part in the negotiations, he stressed.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on ceasefire and exchange of prisoners during OSCE-mediated talks on September 5 in the Belarusian capital. The ceasefire took effect the same day but de facto it has repeatedly been violated.

www.belsat.eu/en

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