Natalia Nikonorova commented statements of the Ukraine's president office
Instead of engaging in substantive and constructive activities within the framework of the Contact Group, the Ukrainian authorities give long, chaotic and largely lacking credibility interviews for the Ukrainian media. So, the head of the president of Ukraine office states that the Ukrainian party has prepared a draft amendment to the law on Donbass special status with Steinmeier's formula implemented. However, this project was not submitted to us - at the moment, only our proposals for amending this law were submitted to the Contact Group.
If Mr. Ermak meant that the draft announced by him was submitted for consideration to certain persons whom Kiev ref as Donbass representatives and invites to participate in Minsk meetings, then this is not an implementation of the measures outlined in the Complex and in the final communiqué of the Normandy leaders commitments of Ukraine to harmonize the legal aspects of Donbass special status. Any acts, one way or another concerning the future of Republics, must be agreed with representatives of the Donbass people, who have been aggressed by Ukraine for more than six years and whose representatives have signed the Package of Measures.
Once again, we draw the attention of the Ukraine's leadership: they are free to agree everything with their pocket "representatives". But if these agreements do not reflect the interests of those whom Ukraine has terrorized for many years with its shelling, blockades and other inhumane actions, such documents will not be recognized by the other side of the conflict - the Republics. We strongly recommend that Kiev not tell the media about its "dominant position", but it's better to actually provide the Contact Group with at least some kind of negotiating position: it is even better if it is written, substantive and correlated with the most pressing issues on the Minsk agenda. This step will be much more useful for a real settlement of the conflict than multi-letter outpourings in the media space and attracting dubious persons to the negotiations - unless, of course, Ukraine is really interested in the resumption of peace.