Talks on Donbas are under way / Photo from UNIAN

Ukraine has taken a tougher stand in talks with Russia as part of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on Donbas.

This was told by Ukrainian member of the TCG political subgroup, journalist Serhiy Garmash on TV Channel Ukraina 24.

Read alsoRussia-led forces step up activity in Donbas: Truce violation, subversive group, reconnaissance drone

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He also shared details of a group meeting held on Wednesday, November 25.

"Nobody has given an ultimatum to Ukraine, on the contrary, Ukraine has begun to get tough with Russia. Rather, we've raised the question as a matter of principle ... The Russian side has not raised any questions about constitutional amendments for a long time. Because the Minsk agreements stipulate that the constitutional reform is based on decentralization, taking into account the specifics of self-government in the ORDLO [Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions]," he said.

The dynamics of the negotiations got under way, the journalist believes.

"Now Russia's proxies from the ORDLO have put forward a plan that they want to receive special powers by 2050. But we do not take for discussion the documents submitted by an illegitimate participant in the process, they are not a party to the TCG. We demanded that Russia take responsibility and submit this plan as a plan of Russia," he said.

Garmash is convinced that the negotiations are not at an impasse now.

"How can you talk about a deadlock in the peace process if nothing had happened for six years before that, but now at least something is happening? The most important thing now is that we have changed our tactics, we have become tougher in the sense that we started demanding from Russia responsibility for what has been happening," he said.

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