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The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the trilateral contact group to resolve the situation in Donbass, Leonid Kravchuk, said Ukraine will continue to ask the Russian authorities for a ceasefire in the east of the country.
The refusal of the Russian authorities to meet in the Normandy format would mean that Moscow wants to continue the war. The head of the Ukrainian delegation to the trilateral contact group to resolve the situation in Donbass, Leonid Kravchuk, said this on the air of the television channel Ukraine 24, commenting on the last meeting of the TCG, in which, due to the position of the Russian Federation, it was not possible to agree to a ceasefire.
“Both the German Chancellor and the French President, the President of Ukraine has stated several times (he even spoke about possible meetings with each of the four) – all together support such a scenario. Only Russia remains, which is against. Yesterday she declared in words [полномочного представителя президента России Бориса] Gryzlova, who does not want to return to the regime of silence. If you declare that you do not want to return to the Normandy meeting, the question arises: what does Russia want, after all? There will only be one conclusion: war, “Kravchuk said.
He noted that the Ukrainian delegation will continue to seek a ceasefire in the east of the country.
“We have proposed and will continue to offer actions, proposals, steps to show that there is nothing more important for Ukraine than ending the war in Donbass. And the first step is to return to the regime of silence,” Kravchuk said.
According to him, at the next TCG meeting, which will take place on April 14, Ukraine will initiate the introduction of an “Easter truce” in Donbass.
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. Officially, the Russian Federation does not recognize its invasion of Ukraine, despite the facts and evidence presented by Ukraine.
On July 22, 2020, the Trilateral Contact Group agreed to a full and complete ceasefire in Donbas starting at midnight on July 27. The Ukrainian side regularly reports cases of violations of the ceasefire by militants.
In particular, on March 26, 2021, in the Shumy village area, Donetsk region, illegal armed groups from Russia opened fire on Ukrainian positions, as a result of which four military personnel were killed, including Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Koval, and two more were injured. On the day of the bombing, JFO headquarters reported that the invaders fired with mortars, heavy machine guns and heavy-duty automatic grenade launchers.
On March 30, at an extraordinary meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, clarified that the Ukrainian army was killed near Shumy as a result of sniper fire. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that Russia is increasing its military presence near the border with Ukraine in the south, east and north.
Negotiations on the resolution of the conflict in Donbass are taking place in the trilateral contact group in Minsk (Ukraine, Russia, OSCE), as well as in the Normandy format, with the participation of representatives of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia.
On December 9, 2019, the last summit of the leaders of the Normandy Four was held in Paris. Its final communiqué establishes that the parties agreed to a ceasefire, the opening of new checkpoints, the exchange of detainees according to the formula of “all for all” until December 31, 2019, the withdrawal of forces and funds in three new areas in Donbass, the extension of the law for one year “on a special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions” and the extension of the mandate of the special OSCE monitoring mission. The agreements were partially fulfilled. The next summit was expected to take place in 2020, but this did not happen.
On January 12, 2021, the first conversations of this year’s advisers with the leaders of the Normandy Four took place in Berlin. The deputy head of the Russian presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak, said after the meeting that “there is nothing to brag about.”
Kravchuk reported on preparations for a meeting of the leaders of the Normandy Four in April, but the Kremlin denied it. On March 9, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said that if the summit does not take place, he is ready to meet with the leaders of the Normandy Four separately.
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