Russian OSCE Envoy Says Moscow, Paris, Berlin Ready To Help Kiev Hold Dialogue With Donbas

VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2019) Russia, together with France and Germany, is ready to help Kiev with consultations in establishing dialogue with self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the embattled Donbas region, Russia's envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Alexander Lukashevich, said.

On December 9, leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine plan to hold the long-awaited meeting, dubbed the Normandy-Four format talks.

"The Ukrainian leadership is approaching the planned Normandy Four leaders' meeting amid significant discrepancies in the implementation of the Minsk agreements [on the conflict settlement]. We are ready, as intermediaries together with France and Germany, to help Kiev with consultations on establishing work on Donetsk and Luhansk," Lukashevich said during an OSCE meeting in Vienna on Thursday.

The team of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needed to carry out specific steps toward the settlement of the Donbas conflict, the envoy noted, adding that expressing commitment to the settlement of the crisis through dialogue was not enough.

The envoy also called on Ukraine's leadership to urge the authorities to avoid statements about the inadmissibility of dialogue with the self-proclaimed republics in Donbas and granting a special status and amnesty to the area. Lukashevich also called on Kiev to fully engage in implementing the Minsk agreements on the conflict settlement.

Lukashevich continued by saying that the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in Donbas kept registering shelling close to the settlement of Petrivske and Zolote despite progress in the mutual withdrawal of forces from there.

Moreover, the SMM saw six heavy self-propelled mortars close to a railroad station in the Donetsk region, which were there in violation of disengagement lines.

The Normandy Four group of negotiators has been leading international attempts to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has been underway since 2014. However, the sides have not sat at the negotiating table since 2016.