Kravchuk-Russia: “We are not in the USSR or under the Kremlin!”

A regular meeeting of the Tripartite Contact Group (TCG) took place through a videoconference with the participation of the delegations of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and under the OSCE moderation, the Presidential Office informs.

The discussion of procedural issues lasted for about four hours, that, however, did not allow the group to proceed immediately with the consideration of the meeting agenda issues.

“Do not block the negotiation process and focus on the issues which Ukrainian citizens are interested in,” Leonid Kravchuk, the Ukrainian delegation head to the Tripartite Contact Group, said at the beginning of the meeting.

According to him, “The parties should work on the implementation of the decisions by the Normandy Four states’ heads, reached during the Paris summit, leading to peace that people are so longing for.”

Kravchuk, in particular, stressed that the Ukrainian delegation is ready to work constructively to address issues on the TCG agenda. The Ukrainian delegation head called not to create “stumbling blocks, but to move forward, focusing on strengthening the ceasefire, the detainees’ release, solving problems in which ordinary people are interested in.”

Addressing Boris Gryzlov, Kravchuk stated, “Do not issue ultimatums for us. We are not in the USSR and not under the Kremlin. Ukraine is an independent state that will not allow dictating any conditions!”

After the meeting, the Russian side accused Ukraine of the Minsk agreements’ implementation “actual stop” and “exit” out of the arrangements. According to Russian media, the Russian Federation representative Boris Gryzlov is dissatisfied with the fact that the Ukrainian parliament did not amend the resolution to enable elections in the occupied Donbas.

According to him, the President’s Office statements about the words of the first prime minister Witold Fokin, removed from the TCG, contradict the very basis of the Minsk agreements. They said that the goal of the Ukrainian delegation was to return all the occupied territories on Ukrainian terms.

“The Ukrainian authorities are forcing the representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk to take retaliatory measures and should not complain when these measures get implemented. Kyiv should return to the ‘Minsk’ fulfilment, to its former election promises accomplishment,” Gryzlov stressed.

Natalia Tolub