Iryna Herashchenko: Ukraine is being pushed to legitimize separatists
Ukraine will not agree to direct negotiations with the DPR–LPR separatists, despite the fact that Kyiv is being forced to do so, as written on Facebook by the Ukrainian Humanitarian Envoy of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, Iryna Herashchenko.
"Ukraine is by all means being pushed to legitimize the militants, for direct negotiations with the separatist districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions, to create scenarios of direct negotiations, parallel to the Minsk negotiations, but without Russia and the OSCE. Of course, this seriously complicates the already difficult work of the Ukrainian delegation in Minsk, and of all groups – not only humanitarian, but security, economic and political groups as well... But there will be neither direct negotiations nor legitimization of the bandits, regardless of any scenarios that may be performed by the Kremlin in this hybrid war against Ukraine," she wrote.
On Saturday, the Trilateral Contact Group on the peaceful settlement of the situation in the Donbas held an unscheduled video conference, during which they discussed the worsening of the situation in the Donbas. The members of the group also urged militants to investigate the shelling incidents against the unarmed OSCE SMM patrol and the capture of the OSCE SMM drone.