EU Strongly Rejects Russia’s Role as ‘Mediator’ in Settling War in Donbas

By signing the Minsk agreements, Russia committed itself to a peaceful settlement of the situation in Donbas, so Russia’s attempts to legitimise the so-called “people’s republics” in eastern Ukraine are not constructive.

“The EU would like to reiterate that the Minsk agreements signed by the Russian Federation clearly establish that the Trilateral Contact Group consists of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE, with the latter being the mediator,” the Mission of the European Union stated during the OSCE Permanent Council meeting.

The European Union also stressed that it strongly rejected Russia’s narrative presenting itself allegedly as a mediator in the “internal Ukrainian conflict.”

“We call on Russia, as a party to the conflict, to take a constructive part in the discussions of the Trilateral Contact Group and to fully implement the Minsk agreements,” reads the statement.

The European Union also expressed hope for progress in opening entry and exit checkpoints in the territories not controlled by the Government of Ukraine as Russian-backed militants had blocked the operation of all checkpoints.

Separately, the EU expressed concern about the restrictions on the work of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, demanding to hold liable those responsible for obstructing the Mission’s work, including jamming and firing on OSCE drones.

Earlier, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the International Organisations in Vienna, said that Russia had been blocking any initiatives of Ukraine within the Trilateral Contact Group, forcing Kyiv to enter into a “direct dialogue” with the Kremlin’s puppets in the occupied territories.

Bohdan Marusyak