Denis Pushilin and Vladyslav Deineho, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics (DPR and LPR) envoys to the Trilateral Contact Group talks in Minsk, have made a joint statement setting conditions on which the DPR and LPR heads, Oleksandr Zakharchenko and Ihor Plotnytsky, could attend the talks as well.
“As concerns the heads of the republics’ participation in the
negotiations, this will be possible only upon the observance of other
conditions. First, a document should be drawn up and initialed at the
level of the authorized representatives for its signature by the
parties. Second – and the most important one! – Ukrainian security
forces must fully stop shelling our populated areas, as the heads are
fully involved in the processes of opposing the shelling and dealing
with the consequences of the blatant genocide of our population,” says
the joint statement circulated by the Donetsk news agency.
Pushilin and Deineho said in the statement they were aware of
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decree appointing former
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma his official representative in the
Minsk talks.
“However, to hold negotiations at the level of the heads of the
Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, there should be a representative
occupying quite a high-ranking position in the Ukrainian state rather
than a private person who cannot bear personal responsibility for
disrupting agreements that have been reached,” the document says.
“In addition, we are still waiting for Kyiv to publish a decree on
the official presidential website indicating the powers that its
official representative in the negotiations is invested,” the document
says.
“In any case, if Poroshenko has appointed an official representative,
there is still a hope for Kyiv’s reasonability, however slight it is,”
Pushilin and Deineho said in the statement.
