Kyiv's statement on revision of Minsk Agreements would mean its withdrawal from peace talks - Kozak
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Moscow views Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Reznikov's statement on the need to review the Package of Measures on settling the conflict in Donbas as a message signaling Kyiv's possible withdrawal from the Minsk and Normandy processes, Russian Presidential Executive Office deputy head Dmitry Kozak said.
"If this statement is confirmed or is not denied by the prime minister or president of Ukraine in the near future, indeed, this would mean Ukraine's withdrawal from the Minsk Agreements, hence from the Minsk and Normandy formats of negotiations on settling the conflict in Donbas," Kozak told journalists.
"This also means that the president of Ukraine would have to disavow the signature he put half a year ago on the final communique of the Paris summit of December 9, 2019," he said.
Reznikov, who is also first deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict in Donbas, said earlier that the Minsk Agreements are no longer consistent with the current realities and needs for settling the conflict in Donbas and that the West should support their revision and a pragmatic approach toward their implementation.
Kozak regretted what he described as Kyiv's de facto refusal to take constructive and consistent steps toward settling the conflict in Donbas.
"We can only regret this. We regret above all that the conflict's settlement has been delayed indefinitely. That numerous people have spent a huge amount of time and efforts in Berlin, in Paris, in Minsk, and in other capitals, including priceless time the heads of state and government have spent for exhausting and, as it turns out now, useless negotiations for more than five years. If there is any positive aspect in this statement, it's perhaps that Ukraine has heeded the request that she stop taking in the whole world," Kozak said.
"In any relationships, even at a family level, parties have recourse to the law when they have irreconcilable differences," he said.
"For the Donbas conflict, the Minsk Agreements have been such law. Now one of the parties to the conflict says: 'I don't want to and won't follow this law'. This means there is no law anymore. Such things happen. International legal practice knows a lot of such facts. But this practice also shows that the development of new rules takes years. Kyiv can't fail to understand this. This can only mean that all statements on seeking peace and a settlement of the conflict have been chiefly declarative," Kozak said.
Russia will continue to provide humanitarian aid to Donbas residents, Kozak said.
"We'll be waiting for Ukraine's official statements and proposals. We'll continue providing as much humanitarian support as we can to Donbas residents to avoid a humanitarian disaster, which would have been inevitable after Ukraine has imposed a full economic embargo," Kozak said.