Minsk talks are in one-year-long deadlock - Miroshnik

The Minsk talks have been in a deadlock for one year already, said Rodion Miroshnik, LPR representative at the Contact Group's political subgroup, speaking at the "Minsk process: reality and tendencies" round table organized in the Russian Tass News Agency on Friday.

"We are in fact in a negotiating impasse, which began a year ago," he said.

The reason behind, Miroshnik explained, is the Ukrainian law of 2020 on the local elections. The elections eventually did not take place in Ukraine-controlled Donbass. the law itself contradicts the Minsk Agreements as it provides for the border control hand-over before the local elections, as well as the dissolution of the LPR and DPR People's Militia and reinstallment of Ukrainian legislature.

"Ukraine in the Minsk talks is coming up with procedural pretexts that entirely block the process," Miroshnik said.

The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The document provides for ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line. *t