DPR negotiator Pushilin urges Volker to draw Kyiv's attention to need to comply with Minsk agreements
DONETSK. March 4 (Interfax) - If the United States Department of State's Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations really wants the Donbas conflict to be resolved peacefully, he should take note of Ukraine's systemic violation of its obligations to comply with the Minsk agreements, Denis Pushilin, the authorized representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said on Sunday.
"If Mr. Volker is really set towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict, then we would like him to concentrate his attention on his charges in Ukraine, on Kyiv systemically violating the obligations it assumed under the Minsk agreements. This would produce a far greater result," Pushilin said, commenting on Volker's statement that the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) must be eliminated.
At a panel discussion at the Hudson Institute analytical center Volker called for the elimination of the DPR and LPR, the news website LB.ua reported a day earlier.
"The so-called Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic are the entities created by Russia to help disguise Russia's role and strengthen the conflict, and they must be eliminated," Volker said.
There is no place for them in the Ukrainian constitutional system, he said. The Minsk agreements aim to restore Ukraine's sovereignty and territory integrity, and these entities must disappear, the U.S. diplomat said.