Your trusted source

Russia keeps on insisting on a direct dialogue between Kiev and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), but the Ukrainian authorities say there is no point in that. These are the results of the Wednesday meeting of political directors of the Normandy Four nations (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) in Paris, TASS reports.

Russia was represented by State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, who described the talks as ‘highly topical and practical." "We have agreed that not enough is being done to implement the Minsk agreements, episodes ceasefire violations were reported," he said.

Karasin said no one was satisfied with the pace of the implementation of those provisions of the Minsk agreement that were linked with political reforms in Ukraine. "So far, progress in the process of the settlement under the Minsk agreements is balked, basically, through Kiev’s fault," he noted. "We are lagging behind the schedule. The deadlines fixed in the Minsk agreements are not met by the Kiev authorities."

The Russian diplomat stressed that all political disputes are to be settled through dialogue between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics, as provided by the Minsk agreements. "We are most concerned over the fact that on the backdrop of relative stabilization of the combat situation political process is making no headway. The dialogue so widely talked about by Normandy Four format participants at all levels, including presidential, is lacking," Karasin said.