United States Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker says Russia is subsidizing corrupt leaders of Donbas, institutionalizing the status quo through sham "elections" there.
"Instead of implementing Minsk and moving towards #peace4Ukraine, Russia is subsidizing corrupt leaders of Donbas, training and equipping the illegal armed formations, institutionalizing the status quo through sham 'elections' and blocking diplomatic progress," he tweeted on November 11, when the illegal "voting" in Donbas was under way.
"The so-called 'People's Republics' have no place in the Minsk agreements and are illegitimate tools supported by Russia's military might and created by Russia to administer Ukrainian territory it controls by force," he tweeted.
U.S. goals in eastern Ukraine are to help the people that Russia claims to care about and to help fulfill commitments Russia agreed to. "We want to help Russia do what it promised to do," Volker said.
According to him, Russia incorrectly claims Ukraine has failed to implement the Minsk agreements. "The reality is the opposite: Russia failed to implement an 'immediate bilateral cessation of the use of weapons' in eastern Ukraine (Sept 5, 2014); or the 'cessation of the use of weapons' (19 Sep 2014); or to establish an 'immediate and comprehensive ceasefire' in eastern Ukraine (12 Feb 2015)," he wrote.
Russia failed to end "the use of all types of weapons and the conduct of offensive operations" (19 Sep 2014) or implement the "withdrawal of all heavy weapons" (12 Feb 2015 and 29 Sep 2015) from eastern Ukraine.
Russia failed to remove "all foreign armed groups" in eastern Ukraine (19 Sep 2014) or to "disarm illegal armed formations" (12 Feb 2015).
Russia failed to "immediately release all hostages and unlawfully detained persons" (5 Sept 2014) and to implement the "release and exchange of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons" in Ukraine (12 Feb 2015).
Russia failed to "ensure permanent monitoring on the Ukrainian-Russian state border and verification by the OSCE," or create a security area in the border regions (19 Sep 2014).
Russia failed to "adopt measures aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in Donbas" (5 Sep 2014) or to "ensure safe access, delivery, storage, and distribution of humanitarian assistance to those in need" (12 Feb 2015).
