Russian President Vladimir Putin has said during a visit to Rome that Ukrainian leaders should end their economic blockade of the country’s eastern Donbas region, where Russian-backed proxy forces have occupied large swaths of territory and been at war with Ukraine since 2014.
Following protests that demanded Ukraine place some kind of economic sanctions on Russian-occupied parts of the Donbas, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council issued an order that banned all trade with the areas back in March 2017. The order was confirmed by then-President Petro Poroshenko later the same month.
Putin spoke against the blockade on July 4, during a meeting in Italy with the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, where he also called on Rome to aid Moscow in peace talks and in “normalizing” its relations with the European Union.
He also asked Conte to lead the way in persuading the EU’s new leadership to lift the economic sanctions on Russia, put in place after Russian forces began illegally occupying the Crimean peninsula and invaded Ukraine.
Conte, who assumed office in May 2018, leads a nationalist right-wing coalition government which includes lawmakers that have repeatedly expressed strong support for Moscow, especially in the cause of lifting sanctions on Russia.
On the Donbas blockade, Putin said: “It is impossible to demand from Russia the fulfillment of the Minsk (peace) agreements all the time, even in those parts which do not depend on us.”
“The Minsk agreements require, for example, the full restoration of the economic relations between Donbas and Ukraine. First of all, it is necessary to cancel the decree of the former President Poroshenko on this blockade, as it directly contradicts the Minsk agreements,” the Russian leader added.
In Rome on July 4, Putin also said that there is a need to “make a decision on an amnesty law,” referring to hypothetical guarantees of immunity from prosecution that could be given to those who participated in the occupation and conflict. He also spoke against shifting “all responsibility to one of the parties.”
Putin also had a meeting with Pope Francis and, according to Russian media, discussed the situation in Ukraine with the Catholic leader. However, no other details of their conversation have been made public.
Earlier, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Putin said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should hold direct talks with Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Additionally, Zelensky and Putin told media they are ready to take part in the Normandy Four format of peace talks, which includes Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany. Zelensky has promised to try to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, but also said that he plans to tell Putin that Crimea and the Donbas are Ukrainian territory.
