Kiev's Ex-Representative In Ukraine Contact Group Says Normandy Four Talks To Be Delayed

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2019) Roman Bezsmertny, Kiev's ex-representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, who was recently fired by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Tuesday that a meeting on Ukraine in the Normandy Four format was likely to be postponed.

"We do not have neither a prime minister nor the government so, obviously, there will be a certain delay," Bezsmertny told Ukraine's 24 Channel.

Earlier this month, Zelenskyy said he had a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the situation in Donbas region.

According to Bezsmertny, the Ukrainian president should not have called Putin.

"There is no need to call Putin, but there is a need to act sharply and consistently ... I could not understand the actions of [Ukraine's former President] Petro Poroshenko, when he called [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. Likewise, I do not understand the actions of Zelenskyy, who immediately calls Putin," he stressed.

Bezsmertny added that two models for freeing prisoners who were captured during the years of conflict in Donbas were being discussed.

"A very hard work on 'clearing' the legal status [of prisoners] is underway on both sides ... [At talks] in Minsk, two problems are being discussed - to release [prisoners] separately as soon as their legal status is cleared or to free them altogether," he said.

The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed republics that refused to recognize the new government in Kiev, which came to power after what they considered to be a coup.

In February 2015, the warring parties signed the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in the region, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.