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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the opening of entry / exit checkpoints on the demarcation line in Donbass was interrupted due to a lack of Ukraine. Last week, the Foreign Ministries of France and Germany called on the Russian Federation to use its influence to open all existing checkpoints.
The joint statement by the French and German Foreign Ministries that Ukraine is meeting its agreed obligations in the Normandy format by increasing the number of entry / exit checkpoints on the demarcation line in Donbas surprised representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. This is stated in the statement of the president of the ministry Maria Zakharova, which was published on November 17.
“Berlin and Paris know very well that, in fact, the simultaneous opening of the entry / exit checkpoints“ Zolotoe ”and“ Happiness ”on the contact line, scheduled for November 10, was interrupted due to the Ukrainian side. According to the parameters agreed by Ukraine and Lugansk, the use of the checkpoint “Happiness” was provided exclusively for road transport, including humanitarian convoys. However, the Ukrainian authorities, immediately before the launch of this checkpoint, abandoned these agreements and unilaterally opened the checkpoint specified as a “pedestrian” checkpoint, knowing that Lugansk was not technically prepared for this crossing format ” the statement said.
According to Zakharova, “LPR” perceived this as a provocation. She noted that “the Kiev authorities played cynically on the desire of ordinary people to return home and see their relatives.”
“In this context, the call for the immediate and unhindered opening of all crossings on the line of contact, regardless of the epidemic situation, seems blasphemous. For some reason, this appeal is also directed at Russia, which has the same attitude on this issue as Germany and France. Berlin and Paris, “emphasized the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Zakharova noted that Ukraine is trying to “repudiate the Minsk accords.”
“The apotheosis was the Kiev draft of the so-called Joint Steps Plan for its implementation, which completely denies the spirit and the letter of the Minsk Package of Measures in 2015,” said Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
The Foreign Ministries of France and Germany, in a joint statement released on November 13, said Ukraine has created the conditions to improve conditions at checkpoints before winter and alleviate the plight of people in the east. from Ukraine. Ministries convened Russia and the authorities under its control in the occupied Donbass territories “immediately open all existing crossings on the line of contact.”
The headquarters of the Joint Forces operation reported that all checkpoints on the contact line in Donbas, including two new ones in Zolote and Shchastya, will resume work on November 10. The crossing of citizens and vehicles will take place every day from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The militants said they would not open their checkpoints in the Lugansk region. They motivated their actions by the fact that Ukraine allegedly “changed its negotiating position.”
On November 10, Ukraine opened a checkpoint on the side of the government-controlled territories.
The first president of Ukraine, head of the Ukrainian delegation in the trilateral contact group Leonid Kravchuk, announced on November 5 the main theses of the “Plan of Joint Steps”. The document provided for the end of the war in Donbass by the end of 2020 and the holding of local elections there until March 31, 2021; creation of a free economic zone in CADLO for 30 years; the abolition of the decrees of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, which are a direct interference in the life of the occupied region (including the simplification of the procedure for issuing Russian citizenship). The Normandy Four summit should take place at the end of 2020, the exchange of detainees and an increase in the OSCE SMM contingent in Donbass, in mid-December, the plan says.
Ukraine’s proposed “Joint Steps Plan” does not replace what has already been done in the six years of the Normandy format and the TCG, Kravchuk said. “This is a document that responds to the realities and what has been done, and with your help we want to complement or clarify those issues that have not been reflected in a broad, precise and concrete way in previous documents,” he said.
In 2014, immediately after the annexation of Crimea, Russia launched an armed aggression in eastern Ukraine. The fighting is between the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the one hand, and the Russian army and the Russian-backed militants who control parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, on the other. The Russian Federation does not officially recognize its invasion of Ukraine, despite the facts and evidence presented by Ukraine.
Negotiations on the resolution of the conflict are taking place within the framework of the trilateral contact group (Ukraine – OSCE – Russia) and the Normandy Four (Ukraine – Germany – France – Russia). Minsk has become a meeting place TCG since July 31, 2014.
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