Pasechnik: Russia and the United States can only be mediators in the negotiations between Kiev and Donbass – International panorama
MOSCOW, December 8. / TASS /. Kiev and the Republic of Donbass must resolve issues of a peaceful settlement directly, Russia and the United States can only act as mediators in the negotiations. About this statement on Wednesday, the head of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik on the air of the program “Fifth Studio” on the TV channelRussia 24“.
“It is worth remembering that both the Russian Federation and America can only serve as mediators at the beginning of these negotiations in the conflict of contradictions and disagreements. The head of the LPR. He admitted that the leaders of the Donbass republics declared their readiness to negotiate with Kiev.
He also said that the number of shelling of the LPR from Kiev in 2021 more than doubled. “If you look at the statistics of shelling, then in 2020 our territory was fired upon by the Armed Forces of Ukraine 238 times. At the beginning of December, this figure was 522 times. Half times,” the head of the LPR said.
Representatives of the People’s Militia of the LPR “celebrate almost every day.”
“As a result of one soldier of the people’s militia killed, seven houses were damaged. , – said Pasechnik.
Kiev refuses direct dialogue with the republics of Donbass. Pasechnik previously stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was rejecting the refusal with the leaders of the LPR and DPR.
On December 7, the presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, held talks via video link, the conversation lasted just over two hours. It was reported that the prevailing theme was the situation around Ukraine. Commenting on this conversation, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the importance of the personal role of the United States in resolving the conflict in Donbass. Kiev has repeatedly noted that it expects to involve the United States in a settlement in eastern Ukraine. At the same time, Moscow notes that the influence of the United States on the Kiev leadership is important for Russia.
Putin earlier, commenting on Zelensky’s words about a personal meeting, notes that if we are talking about discussing the problems of Donbass, then the Ukrainian leadership should first of all meet with the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics. It is with this, according to Putin, that consideration should be started in Donbass, and then these issues should be discussed with any third country, including Russia. Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the conflict in Donbass is an internal Ukrainian one, and Russia, among others with the OSCE, Paris and Berlin, is only an intermediary in its settlement in the Minsk agreements.
In Donbass, since the end of February, despite the additional measures to control the ceasefire, intense firefights have resumed. The situation escalated after the capture of the representative of the Luhansk People’s Republic in the Joint Center for the Control and Ending of the Ceasefire on October 13 by the Ukrainian security forces. The DPR and LPR note that Kiev is purposefully provoking an escalation of the conflict.