Lavrov recalled that the Minsk Agreements were approved by a UN Security Council resolution and provide for a constitutional reform on decentralization and the granting of a special status to certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“The constitutional consolidation of the special status of Donbass is the key to resolving the crisis in Ukraine and resolving security issues, socio-economic and humanitarian problems,” he stressed.
The Russian minister also noted that this position was also confirmed at the Normandy summit in Paris in December 2019.
“It's time for our Ukrainian partners to stop fooling everyone, every time coming up with excuses so as not to do anything in terms of fulfilling existing obligations,” added Lavrov.
Earlier, the plenipotentiary of Russia in the trilateral contact group on Donbass, Boris Gryzlov, said that the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Leonid Kravchuk, would appeal to the Verkhovna Rada regarding a resolution on holding local elections in the country.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that the Ukrainian side considers it unacceptable to consolidate the status of the uncontrolled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Constitution.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in turn, expressed her readiness to help Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in deciphering each clause of the Minsk agreements.