Ukraine fails to fulfill obligations in withdrawal in Donbas' Stanytsia Luhanska again - Gryzlov
MINSK. Sept 20 (Interfax) - The Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in southeastern Ukraine continued to discuss new areas of disengagement of forces and hardware in Donbas, Boris Gryzlov, Russia's envoy to the group, said.
"Only the Ukrainian side disagrees with suggestions, and it hinders the further process of disengagement of forces. At that, we are forced to note that the Ukrainian side has failed to fulfill obligations in disengagement near Stanytsia Luhanska yet again," Gryzlov told reporters on Wednesday.
The Contact Group evaluated the implementation of the ceasefire, the 'school truce,' he said following the meeting. "We discussed instances of ceasefire violations and measures to prevent ceasefire violations, he said.
Gryzlov also began to wonder why Kyiv does not take any actions to extend and qualitatively update the law on the special status of certain areas of Donbas which expires in October. "The Minsk Agreements are premised on the existence of such a law and that it should be in force on an ongoing basis. Donbas' special status is the groundwork of the political settlement," he said.
Instead, Ukrainian authorities are trying to purchase new lethal weapons, he said. "Which is a step that is completely useless to the political settlement of the conflict," Gryzlov said.