REUTERS

Ukraine has no intention to hold talks with Russian puppet authorities of the non-recognized self-styled "LPR-DPR" entities in eastern Ukraine, even in theory, says a spokesman for the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement, Oleksiy Arestovych.

The statement came as Arestovych commented to Ukraine 24 TV on the relevant proposal by Russian President Vladimir Putin who had dismissed Volodymyr Zelensky's invitation to hold a meeting in Donbas, offering that the Ukrainian president discuss the Donbas issues with the local "authorities."

Arestovych said this was a matter of principle for Ukraine.

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"Our position remains fundamental: there will be no negotiations with the so-called 'LPR' and 'DPR' and there can't be any, even in the conditional space, in the 'second-floor fiction' mode," says Arestovych.

He also noted that Putin with his proposal had disavowed the Minsk agreements.

"Putin did a very interesting thing: he actually disavowed the Minsk agreements. He said 'with the LPR/ DPR republics', which Russia had never recognized before. Of course, this was a faux pas, but this warning puts the Minsk agreements in limbo. If you try hard enough, this is a verbal withdrawal from Minsk agreements," he said.

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