Kyiv authorities and eastern Ukraine militias should establish direct dialogue … – ITAR
Artyom Geodakyan/TASS
Kyiv’s decision on eastern Ukraine blockade inhuman — Russian upper house speaker
MOSCOW, November 19 /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that the Kyiv authorities and representatives of eastern Ukraine will hopefully draw lessons from the Ukrainian crisis and will not lose a chance to establish a direct and sustainable dialogue.
“We have always said that it is necessary to implement the existing agreements. It is necessary to be vigilant. As we know, the previously reached agreements, including the one on settling the Ukraine crisis signed on February 21, have been violated,” Lavrov said after meeting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
“It was followed by the Geneva statement issued by representatives of the United States, the European Union, Russia and Ukraine in which the Kyiv authorities pledged to start an immediate constitutional reform involving all regions. But this agreement has not been implemented either,” Lavrov went on to say.
“Those who did not accept the results of a state coup and an attempt to impose alien rules on them have good reason not to trust the Kyiv authorities, especially now that calls are being made to bury the Minsk agreements and return to the problem’s settlement by force,” Lavrov said.
“I hope that we are going to draw a moral from the early stage of the Ukraine crisis and will preserve a chance for Kyiv and representatives of south-eastern Ukraine who have signed the Minsk protocol to establish a direct and sustainable dialogue,” the Russian foreign minister said adding that the most important task ‘on the terrain’ was to agree on the demarcation line, withdraw heavy weapons and ensure the demarcations’ monitoring by OSCE monitors,” Lavrov said.
