Danilov had better support Package of Measures for the sake of Ukraine integrity – Nikonorova

Donetsk, Feb 19 – DAN. Ukraine can keep formal sovereignty over Donbass only if it implements the Minsk Agreements, the Donetsk People’s Republic representative to the Contact Group talks, DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Secretary Alexey Danilov stated the intention to stop the war in Donbass without the loss of territory saying that achieving peace was priority in Ukraine’s new national security strategy. The document is based on the three key principles such as containment, stability and interaction. For example, the first envisions defence industry development.

“Alexey Danilov has apparently seen the text of the Minsk Agreements. This document, which Ukraine pledged to implement, is the only non-military way to resolve the conflict and keep Ukraine’s formal sovereignty over Donbass,” Nikonorova said. “If he’s really concerned about the fates of the people living in Donbass, he had better support, in all ways, the soonest implementation of the Package of Measures.”

She believes that instead, Kiev does everything possible to split the country just “paying lip service to its integrity.”

“We have the firm conviction that the new authorities either lack political will to resolve the conflict or use their office for their own financial interests as they continue to present themselves as a victim of aggression before their western sponsors, not mentioning the continuing provocations on the contact line and new strikes,” the diplomat added.

The Agreements dated September 5 and 19, 2014 and February 12, 2015 forged by the Contact Group in Minsk make groundwork for a peaceful settlement of the Donbass conflict. The Contact Group set forth a peace plan and agreed a ceasefire, then adopted the Memorandum on ceasefire implementation and later on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

The Package of Measures envisions a Constitutional reform in Ukraine which has to result in deep decentralisation. Special status for Donbass is a key point of the political part of the agreements.

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