Russia responded to the statement of the representative of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Leonid Kravchuk about the unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to continue negotiations on a settlement in Donbass if a representative of the self-proclaimed DPR participates in the discussion.

Commenting on Kravchuk's words, State Duma Chairman Viacheslav Volodin questioned the ability of the Ukrainian side to adequately perceive the situation.

“Discussions of Leonid Kravchuk about who he will sit with and with whom will not sit.

It seems that the representatives of Ukraine live in a different world, or have ascended to such an extent that they are not able to adequately perceive the situation.

Ask yourself a question: do you think that they will sit down with you at the negotiating table?

After all, you have the blood of children, women, old people on your hands, ”Volodin wrote on Telegram.

The Speaker of the State Duma called on representatives of the Ukrainian politicians not to contribute to the escalation of tensions in Donbass if they "do not want to end their political career in The Hague."

The day before, the head of the Ukrainian delegation to the trilateral contact group on Donbass, Leonid Kravchuk, demanded that the representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Maya Pirogova be excluded from the political subgroup.

“As soon as this person appears in the negotiations, we will not even explain why, but we are leaving the negotiations for the period until Heidi Grau succeeds in excluding her from the negotiation process,” Kravchuk said on the air of the Ukraine 24 channel.

Also on russian.rt.com "Not much will change for Donbass": why Kiev seeks to resume negotiations in the Normandy format

Recall that the Trilateral Contact Group was formed in 2014 to resolve issues requiring interaction between the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

In particular, this concerns the decisions taken by the Normandy Four, which includes Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

The Federation Council called Kravchuk's statement boorish.

As a member of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, head of the commission for the protection of state sovereignty, Andrei Klimov, noted in an interview with RT, representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of Donbass are holding a restrained dialogue.

“Boorish behavior does not adorn either Kravchuk or the Ukrainian side.

I had the opportunity to appear in Minsk at such negotiations and I must note that both the representatives of the LPR and the representatives of the DPR behave quite tactfully, and it is not difficult to look for reasons to disrupt the negotiations, ”Klimov explained.

According to him, if the parties want to achieve a result, they should not think about how to drag out time, but about how to implement the Minsk agreements, which have no alternative.

The senator noted that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics have the right to choose their own representatives for such negotiations.

“But these negotiators should not be determined from Kiev in any way, it is pointless.

In this respect, the statement of Mr. Kravchuk is clearly provocative, ”concluded the senator.

“This is such a move, which, according to the ex-president, should cause confusion in the ranks of opponents, and if the negotiations do not yield results, it will be possible to blame everything on those participants.

So this statement is just a clever move.

It's not about the representatives of the LPR, whether there is even a president of another country, Kravchuk will not be satisfied with this.

He only needs confirmation of his opinion and position on the negotiations, ”State Duma deputy Ruslan Balbek comments on Kravchuk's position.

As the parliamentarian suggested in an interview with RT, Kravchuk thus states that the Minsk agreements are impracticable for Ukraine.

According to Balbek, Kravchuk "needs a scandal" around these agreements.

We will remind that earlier in the LPR reported the first artillery strike from the Ukrainian army since July.

According to the press service of the People's Militia Department of the LPR, the firing was carried out with 122 mm artillery at the area of ​​the Kalinovo-Borshchevate settlement. 

According to the president of the Center for Strategic Communications Dmitry Abzalov, it is beneficial for Kiev to sabotage the negotiation process and "knock out" representatives of the LPR and DPR from it.

“We all understand that the situation is escalating in the direction of Donbass, and an attempt to block activities in the framework of the Minsk negotiation process is, among other things, an opportunity to provoke representatives of the DPR and LPR to certain actions in order to activate possible confrontation under the pretext of refusing the negotiation process ", - he concluded.