Relocating Donbas Talks From Minsk Will Not Affect Actions Of Kiev - Russian Diplomat

Relocating Donbas conflict settlement talks from Minsk to another location will not affect Kiev's reluctance to adhere to Minsk agreements, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th June, 2021) Relocating Donbas conflict settlement talks from Minsk to another location will not affect Kiev's reluctance to adhere to Minsk agreements, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said on Tuesday.

In late May, Leonid Kravchuk, the head of Kiev's delegation in the Trilateral Contact Group, which includes Russia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and Ukraine, said that Minsk can no longer be a platform for further negotiations after it ordered the Ryanair airplane to land over a false bomb threat.

"The Russian side looks at this from a substantive point of view: even if you change the location, like the Ukrainian administration wants, if they are not ready to fulfill the Minsk agreements, then the situation will not change based on where negotiations are being held," Grushko told reporters.

The Russian official added that the main issue is that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making attempts to undermine the implementation of Minsk agreements and "aims to maintain sanctions that were imposed against Russia by the West".