The following colloquy occurred at a press conference in Moscow with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, on June 25.
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Question: How do you see the process of settlement of the situation in the South-East of Ukraine?
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Question: How do you see the process of settlement of the situation in the South-East of Ukraine?
Sergey Lavrov: It is necessary that Kiev understands the
South-Eastern regions, hears their interests and then starts to agree on how to
satisfy them, so that the population of the South-East lives in country named
Ukraine as nationals having full rights, feeling that they have the right to do
so. For this, we need to put some propositions on the table. They made their
propositions.
We appeal to the Kiev authorities to stop using militants,
battalions formed by Ihor Kolomoyskyi, – they are just extremists. You know
that Ihor Kolomoyskyi simply refused to keep the cease fire. They control a
significant part of the territory with its units. There are battalions of the
National Guard made up of the Right Sector, as well as some minor units, which
are not subordinate to anyone. The cessation of violence is a task not only for
those who represent the Kiev regime and proclaimed a republic, but also for
everyone, so that we attempt to remove from the equation some radical elements
who do not answer to anyone. All of this has sense, only if the negotiations
start. Read the plan of 15 items – none of them considers an equal negotiation
process. There is a phrase there, that decentralisation will continue only
after the implementation of all the 15 items, the majority of which envisages
disarmament of the South-East without any guarantees. The plan of the Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko proposes an amnesty. In this case, Kiev and the
South-East must stop discussions of what will happen after disarmament: amnesty
or they will be brought to another house of trade unions and burned.
In this situation, we should not talk using slogans, making
up the largest part of the plan. This has probably been done expecting that the
world community will say: “Yes, there is a peace plan having a beautiful name
“peace plan of Petro Poroshenko””. At the same time, there is little interest
in its content, and they appeal to us to implement it. Firstly, we cannot do
this, because this plan should be implemented through negotiations with the
South-East. Secondly, the content of the negotiation process should be “on the
table”. Then people will react.
There was a meeting in Donetsk three days ago, which ended
in a sufficiently constructive way despite its complicated beginning. There is
an understanding that the cease fire will not be violated. However, the
President of Ukraine announced that after the incident with the damaged
helicopter, he can stop this regime earlier. Of course, this is a tragedy and
it should be avoided. However, a military helicopter was flying in the place,
where people outraged by many months of fighting hold positions around cities
with peaceful civilians. If it was necessary to deliver medications, food or
something else, relevant communication channels should have been used – it was
necessary to inform them that a helicopter would come, would follow a certain
route to land in a specific point and its cargo would be subjected to an
inspection.
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