DPR reminds Kiev that border control restoration is final stage of settlement

Donetsk, Sep 30 – DAN. The restoration of control of the state border to the Ukrainian government is the final step of the Donbass conflict settlement, and Ukraine agreed with it as it signed the Minsk Agreements in 2015, said DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova.

Former Ukrainian president and Ukraine’s representative to the Contact Group Leonid Kuchma said on Friday that the Steinmeier formula (defining the procedure to provide special status to Donbass) should be signed after Kiev regains control over the border between Donbass Republics and Russia.

“On the eve of the meeting in Minsk, Kiev’s representatives keep making statements that reveal their evident, undisguised unwillingness to comply with the Minsk Agreements. Again, there were statements on the Steinmeier formula, that it can be harmonized only after the border control is restored to Ukraine and some security standards are in place. They attach such conditions alleging that safe elections are impossible otherwise,” Nikonorova said.

She suggested that Ukrainian authorities overlook, either deliberately or due to a misunderstanding, the fact that the formula concerns the mechanism of Donbass special status enactment, which is the basis for any further discussions on elections.

Moreover, the Package of Measures refers to the restoration of control of the state border as to a final stage of the settlement.

“It can be started only after all other articles are completely fulfilled,” Nikonorova said.
She voiced concerns that Ukraine lets itself to violate the agreements and direct instructions of the Normandy Four.

The DPR still hopes that Ukrainian representatives shall realize at the meeting in Minsk the possible grave consequences of their failure to deliver on obligations and shall embark on the formula harmonization. *ot

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