The latest meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement was the toughest one, says Serhiy Harmash, one of Ukraine's delegates to the Group.
"They even got the ever so patient, diplomatic Kravchuk mad!" Harmash noted.
He noted that the representatives of the occupied areas of Donbas (ORDLO) are not members of the TCG, and therefore it is impossible to consider at the Minsk negotiations any proposals they submit, including their so-called settlement plan.
Read alsoRussia demands 50 years of "special status" for Donbas – Ukrainian MP"All the more so – all the decisions worked out in the TCG will be implemented or not implemented by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. And how can it implement a plan to resolve the conflict if the other party to the conflict (financing and controlling it) doesn't want to submit it [the plan] on its own behalf as a member of the TCG and a participant in the negotiations, while promoting one by a non-member (Russian proxy force in Donbas), who is not an actor, who bears no responsibility for failure to comply with the decisions taken?" Harmash said.
He added that Russian proxy forces "are interested in having the conflict prevail."
Head of the Ukrainian delegation, Leonid Kravchuk, "asked the Russian Federation to officially submit to the TCG an action plan from the Russian delegation or to submit an ORDLO plan on behalf of the Russian delegation."
In this regard, Russian delegate Boris Gryzlov said that "if such a plan appeared, it would be Russia's interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine, for which Russia, of course, cannot go...".
"Since Moscow has no will to take responsibility for the agreements reached, since they continue to act as mediators, not participants in the negotiations, it is obvious that all these 'roadmaps by ORDLO' are designed not for a peaceful settlement, but simply for legitimizing their puppets and the downgrading of the role of the Normandy Four, in which Russia has found itself standing one against three. Today at the TCG this was especially obvious," Harmash emphasized.
Read alsoBiden's pick for secretary of state: Blinken's stance on UkraineAt the same time, he believes that the OSCE in the negotiations "is playing the role of the Kremlin's instrument, not a mediator and moderator."
"I'm not complaining, I'm describing a situation that, in my opinion, is getting ripe for Ukraine to have to change its tactics of negotiations in the Minsk process," Harmash said.
TCG meeting on Donbas: Latest
On November 25, at the TCG talks, the Ukrainian delegation proposed to hold an extraordinary meeting next week to discuss the release of the held persons and the unblocking of the crossing checkpoint.
Kravchuk called on the Russian Federation to take political responsibility for the implementation of the agreements of the Normandy Four leaders agreed at the Paris summit in December 2019.
