Ukraine's reluctance to abandon the idea of ​​military suppression of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass has become a serious problem.

This was stated by Boris Gryzlov, plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the contact group on Donbass.

“Even at the level of political statements, the Kiev authorities are setting themselves up for a war against Donbass.

Both public statements and the line of conduct of the official Kiev remain aggressive and completely irresponsible, ”he said.

On January 21, the first meeting of the contact group on the settlement in Donbass took place this year.

For the first time, representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk officially took part in the negotiations.

“We welcome this expansion of the dialogue,” said Gryzlov.

  • Boris Gryzlov

  • RIA News

  • © Alexey Nikolsky

In turn, the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Leonid Kravchuk said that Kiev is not ready to return the uncontrolled areas of Donbass with the help of military force.

“I am not raising the issue of returning territories by military means.

At least in the near future, "- quotes the words of the ex-president of the republic, RBC-Ukraine agency.

He added that this issue can only be resolved by political and diplomatic methods.

In addition, the Ukrainian side has high hopes for anti-Russian sanctions.

According to Kravchuk, these restrictions "will expand."

In addition, the main negotiator on the part of Ukraine believes that it is impossible to count on shifts in the peace process without a reassessment of approaches.

“If this (updating the approach.

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RT

) does not happen and an assessment of the situation is not given, new approaches to the roadmap are not proposed, then it will be impossible to hope for any shifts in this process,” Kravchuk said.

On January 22, a new round of talks between the advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four countries is to take place.

As the representative of the LPR in the political subgroup Rodion Miroshnik noted in the RT commentary, the meeting should be held in video format.

“We know from the OSCE representatives that the meeting will consider many of the issues that have already been discussed earlier by the contact group.

Ukraine is trying to separate the Normandy format from the Minsk format, which Kiev wants to lead to a dead end.

And in the "Normandy format" Ukraine expects to attract some other external forces, "explained Miroshnik.

  • Ukrainian military personnel

  • Reuters

  • © Gleb Garanich

Previous negotiations between the advisers to the leaders of the Normandy Four took place on January 12, but were not crowned with success.

Nevertheless, in Zelenskiy's office they were called "challenging, but constructive."

At the same time, as stated in the press service of the Ukrainian president, with the exception of the ceasefire, progress in other aspects of the peaceful settlement "is practically absent."

The Russian side gave a similar assessment of this meeting.

Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, told reporters that the conversation was useful, but the parties failed to come to decisions on any item.

“We agreed that new principled approaches to the formation of a roadmap in the Trilateral Contact Group on a comprehensive settlement of the conflict will be prepared,” Kozak added.

Recall that the last Normandy Four summit was held in December 2019 in Paris.

As a result, it was confirmed that there is no alternative to the strict and consistent implementation of the Minsk agreements.

However, in practice, Kiev is in no hurry to follow these agreements.

So, Vladimir Zelensky even stated that he would personally withdraw from the Minsk agreements.

However, Ukraine cannot agree to this, since the sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia are tied precisely to this agreement.

Sabotage tactics

According to Rodion Miroshnik, at the level of the contact group, Ukraine is trying to evade the issue of creating a stable mechanism to ensure an armistice.

“Recently, cases of violation of the ceasefire regime have been growing.

The main reason is that Ukraine in September 2020 withdrew from the coordination mechanism, which provided verification and proposed measures to avoid further escalation of the situation, ”said Miroshnik.

According to him, earlier, each case of violation was considered with the participation of both sides, but Ukraine refused to joint inspections.

“In addition, no ceasefire regime will be stable and long, until a political decision follows, which could be associated, for example, with securing a special status in the constitution of Ukraine, and thereby creating a state within a state.

Kiev is trying in every possible way to get away from this, proposing various roadmaps, which deal exclusively with the issues of demilitarization and surrender of the Donbass republics, which is unacceptable, ”the representative of Lugansk explained.

  • December 9, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (from right to left) during a joint press conference following the meeting in the Normandy format at the Elysee Palace

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  • © Alexey Nikolsky

In November 2020, the Ukrainian side presented a new program for resolving the conflict called the "Plan of Joint Steps".

Kiev proposed to change the sequence of measures laid down in previous agreements.

Thus, Ukrainian politicians demand that the border with Russia be transferred under the control of Ukraine before the local elections in Donbass.

This is contrary to the order that the parties agreed on in 2015.

In addition, Kiev is sabotaging the holding of elections in the uncontrolled territories of Donbass, although this is also provided for in the Minsk agreements.

Local elections were held in Ukraine last year, but no voting took place in the republics of Donbass.

The corresponding resolution was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada a few months before the elections.

Now Kiev is counting on support from the US administration that came to power.

Back in December, Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed the hope that the new head of the White House would help resolve the conflict in Donbass.

However, experts are not sure that Washington will rush to activate the Ukrainian direction of its policy.

"It is still difficult to say how US-Ukrainian relations will develop under Joe Biden, although he previously supervised this area," economist and political analyst Alexander Dudchak said in an interview with RT.

Andrei Suzdaltsev, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics, shares a similar point of view.

“The Biden administration has not yet submitted any public reactions to the Ukrainian crisis.

So it is not yet clear what impact it can have on the situation, "the expert noted in a commentary on RT.

"There is no need to wait for change"


Note that the former Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said that the conflict in Donbass cannot be called frozen, because efforts are still being made to resolve it.

In addition, she stated that Ukraine, unlike Russia, allegedly fulfilled all the agreements reached at the Normandy Four summit in 2019.

According to Alexander Dudchak, this assessment of the OSCE representative is far from the real situation.

“There is nothing strange in this, the OSCE and similar structures are oriented to the West and represent its point of view on the situation in Donbass,” the expert explained.

  • Vladimir Zelensky

  • RIA News

Meanwhile, Donetsk got tired of waiting for steps from Kiev and did not rule out a new referendum on self-determination.

The head of the DPR Denis Pushilin announced such readiness.

Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic, Natalya Nikonorova, invited the members of the UN Security Council to find out the position of the inhabitants of the region with the help of an internationally recognized referendum.

According to experts, Kiev itself is pushing the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass to the final separation from Ukraine, since it does not fulfill the political agreements reached in 2015.

“Thus, the point is that the conflict will really become frozen.

But this scenario is not beneficial to the West, because the frozen conflict cannot be used as an effective lever of pressure on Russia.

But the West is also doing nothing to resolve it, ”says Suzdaltsev.

Alexander Dudchak adheres to a similar point of view.

In his opinion, Kiev by its actions only blocks the possibility of the reintegration of Donbass into Ukraine.

In such conditions, it is possible that the conflict will indeed finally go into a frozen phase, the expert says.

“The situation has not moved from a dead center over the past time, we do not have to wait for changes in 2021.

Kiev does nothing for this.

By and large, for the conflict to end, it is necessary that an objective assessment of the events of 2014 was given in Ukraine and the West.

Only then will the voices of Donbass residents be truly heard, ”the expert summed up.