LPR urges direct dialogue with Kyiv for Donbas settlement
LUHANSK. March 9 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) is urging Ukraine to settle the Donbas conflict through direct dialogue, the LPR representative in the Trilateral Contact Group's humanitarian subgroup, Olga Kobtseva, said.
"It is necessary to establish direct dialogue in addition to the talks between the conflicting parties within Ukraine: Ukraine's representatives and those from the LPR and DPR [Donetsk people's republic]," Kobtseva said on Saturday.
"Resuming cooperation at the previous level is the only possible option in the current situation," she said.
The Donbas republics and Ukraine are in "deep disagreement over the interpretation and implementation of the Minsk agreements," she said. "These differences require serious discussion and support by the leaders of all parties involved, which have acted as guarantors of the implementation of the Minsk agreements to ensure a constructive dialogue," the LPR representative said.
The LPR is seeing in Ukraine's representative in the subgroup, Viktor Medvedchuk, "a negotiator with whom dialogue is possible, someone with whom it is possible to reach and implement agreements," Kobtseva said.
"In the person of Medvedchuk, there emanates a consistent, laconic position that allows achieving certain agreements and making real steps," she said.