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Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nation Volodymyr Yelchenko says negotiations on Donbas between U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker and Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov are "on the verge of collapse."

Read alsoU.S. negotiator for Ukraine: Russia could end fighting in Donbas at any time

"There is no unity and progress there. And the progress also depends on the Surkov-Volker track, which seems to be on the verge of collapse. They have not met since January. No decisions have been made... If six or seven meetings have been held without result – something needs to be changed. I'm not able to peer into Surkov's soul, but until real action is taken we cannot do much about it," Yelchenko said at a press conference in Kyiv, the news outlet Hromadske reports.

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According to him, it will take at least six months after a UN decision to deploy a peacekeeping mission to occupied Donbas. Surkov and Volker held four meetings: in Minsk on August 21, 2017, in Belgrade on October 7 and November 13, in Dubai on January 26, 2018. The negotiators discuss ways to implement the Minsk agreements and the possible introduction of a peacekeeping mission to Donbas. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, no result was achieved at the last meeting.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on August 21 announced that a new meeting between Volker and Surkov would take place "in the foreseeable future."