Dialogue on Donbas Blocked Due to Kiev's Refusal to Change Election Resolution - DPR

DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2020) Talks on the settlement of the conflict in Donbas are blocked due to Kiev's refusal to change the resolution on elections in the region, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement, DPR Foreign Minister Natalya Nikonorova said.

The group held a video conference on Wednesday.

"The negotiation process is still blocked by the Ukrainian side, which refuses to take upon it commitments to amend the odious resolution of the Verkhovna Rada on local elections," Nikonorova said.

"For four sessions already, Kiev's representatives have been unable to recognize the obvious contradiction of this act to the Package of Measures [for implementation of the Minsk agreements], deliberately sabotaging the work of the political group," she said as quoted by the DPR Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the Ukrainian parliament set the next local elections for October 25, but they will not take place in areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Kiev. In line with the resolution, elections there can take place after the pullout of all "armed units" and transfer of control over the Ukrainian-Russian border. In July, Russia's envoy to the Contact Group, Boris Gryzlov, said the Verkhovna Rada's decision to hold local elections contradicted the Minsk agreements.