You're reading: Putin says Kyiv can regain control over Donbas only through implementing Minsk Agreements

ATHENS - Kyiv can regain control of Donbas only through the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“The issue of Donbas can be settled – and Mr. Prime Minister (of Greece) has just mentioned this – exclusively through the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the key element of which is political,” Putin said at a press conference following negotiations with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday.

Putin so commented on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s remark that, after Ukrainian military pilot Nadia Savchenko’s return to Ukraine, Kyiv would retake Donbas and Crimea as well.

The amendment of the Ukrainian constitution is the primary objective on this way, Putin said.

“The matter concerns decentralization, as they like to say in Ukraine. By the way, they could use Greece’s experience in this as well. The incumbent president formerly served as minister of the interior and decentralization,” Putin said.

Ukraine should also pass legislation on amnesty, Putin said.

“How can you hold elections and how can you reintegrate people into government institutions and into the state if they are criminally prosecuted?” he said.