Member of Ukraine-EU-Russia trilateral contact group from Ukrainian party, and Ukraine's second president (1994-2005), Leonid Kuchma, has said he believes that negotiations on settling the situation in the Donbas must be held with Russian President Vladimir Putin's direct participation.
“The main party (of the negotiations to settle the situation) isn’t the Donbas representatives, the main party of this situation is Russia… Putin, as a central figure, needs to sit down at the negotiating table,” he said at YES annual meeting in Kyiv on Sept. 12.
According to Kuchma, the negotiations must not be held tête-à-tête.
“Talking tête-à-tête without witnesses is impossible. We need EU and U.S. as witnesses. This conflict must be solved in a collective way,” he said.
