8 Jul 2019 18:50

'Economic blockade' may be lifted from Donbas as soon as local illegally nationalized enterprises returned - Zelensky

KYIV. July 8 (Interfax) - "The economic blockade" may be lifted from Donbas only if local, illegally nationalized Ukrainian enterprises are returned, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"As to the issues of economic blockade, I do not want to be misunderstood here. You know that all of this is possible, we are discussing that in Minsk. I remember how Mr. Kuchma was interpreted in the media, and he was misinterpreted. Everything is possible, everything can be opened soon, but, please, return our illegally nationalized enterprises, which are located in temporarily occupied territories," Zelensky said at a joint press conference with the European Union leaders following the Ukraine-EU summit in Kyiv on Monday in reply to questions from journalists.

The Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decisions on trade restrictions imposed on certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions outside Kyiv's control cannot be revised until the assets located there are returned to the Ukrainian legal field, Ukrainian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group Leonid Kuchma said on June 19.