DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd May, 2021) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Kiev this week will not advance the stalling Ukraine peace process, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, told Sputnik.
"We expect that nothing good will come out of it for Donbas [Ukraine's southeastern regions] ... We haven't seen any positive steps in the implementation of the Minsk agreement and the peaceful settlement of the conflict since the Americans got involved," Pushilin said.
He said that the situation in Ukraine has been deteriorating since Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland came to the country in February 2014, shortly before the coup that put a new government in power in Kiev.
Blinken's trip to Ukraine on Wednesday and Thursday will be another "signal that Ukraine will use new elements in talks" with Russia and the pro-independence forces, Pushilin told Sputnik.
"They aren't just running out of arguments, they are out of them. All they can do now is block efforts, substitute notions, try to change formats... They are trying to steer the process toward a conflict and replace Donbas with Russia by pushing our negotiators out of the talks. That is why a closer attention from the US can only change the situation for the worse," Pushilin said.
