Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Administration Kostiantyn Yeliseyev has said that Russia demanded that Ukraine should pass new laws on special status for Donbas, a full amnesty for militants, and another law on elections during talks in Paris, which Kyiv rejected.
At a briefing in Kyiv on Monday, he said that Russia was purely interested in its own interests during the talks, which was way it tried to force Ukraine to pass a number of unacceptable laws.
“It [Russia] expected to achieve its aims. For example, you know that there was an idea that Ukraine must amend its Constitution. It didn’t happen,” Yeliseyev said.
Moreover, according to Yeliseyev, the Russian representatives insisted on passing an amnesty law which would mean that every single separatist militant would be pardoned.
“We threw away all the attempts to adopt a new law on amnesty. Moreover, this law automatically envisaged an amnesty for the militants of the so-called LPR, DPR [Luhansk/Donetsk People’s Republics],” Yeliseyev said.
In addition, Moscow insisted on a complete amnesty before pseudo-elections are held in Donbas, which the Ukrainian delegation also rejected.
“We were [made to feel] forced to pass some kind of new law on the elections so that it would take into account the interests of the militants, along with separate proposals of definite moderators. It also didn’t work,” Yeliseyev said.
