Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said further talks in the Normandy Four format were "impossible" after the murder of the leader of the "DPR" terrorist organization, Alexander Zakharchenko.
"In the current situation, of course, it is impossible to talk about the next meetings in the Normandy format, as many European partners wanted," Lavrov told journalists on Satuday, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Moscow.
"This is a serious situation that needs to be analyzed. That's what we're doing now," said Lavrov.
"This is a provocation, a frank one, aimed at frustrating the implementation of Minsk accords. Although, Kyiv authorities never fulfilled them anyway," Lavrov claimed.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on August 22, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said a possibility was being considered to hold a Normandy Four meeting at the foreign ministers' level in the framework of the UN General Assembly in New York in the second half of September.
UNIAN memo. On August 31, head of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" Alexander Zakharchenko was blown up in a Donetsk restaurant "Separ" and died at a local hospital shortly after the incident.
The Security Service of Ukraine confirmed Zakharchenko's death and suggested that his murder could be the result of internal criminal conflicts among militants, primarily related to the re-distribution of businesses seized in 2014-2018.
In addition, the SBU does not exclude the involvement of Russian special services, for whom the odious Zakharchenko could become a burden hindering their plans.
In turn, MFA Russia put the blame on Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of being behind the assassination.
