Interfax: Increasingly difficult for Kyiv to explain its problems by ‘Russian threat’ – Senator Kosachyov

MOSCOW. April 28 (Interfax) – The chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachyov, believes that the latest Ukraine-EU summit had a ‘sobering-up’ effect on Kyiv.

“At the Ukraine-EU summit, Brussels focused on things that sobered Kyiv up – the pace and scope of constitutional and other reforms in Ukraine, the fight against corruption, the restructuring of the energy sector and the implementation of the Minsk agreements by Kyiv,” Kosachyov wrote on his online blog.

Ukraine, for its part, wanted this summit to address the prospects for visa-free travel, a schedule for its possible accession to the European Union, macro-financial aid, the possibility of deploying European peacekeepers in Donbas and “other matters that are dear for the Ukrainian spirit,” the Russian senator said.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult for Kyiv to explain its failures by the ‘Russian aggression’. The effectiveness of the West’s economic assistance for Ukraine is getting more dubious. There is no progress in securing visa-free travel between the EU [and Ukraine]. The contrast between reality and expectations will keep growing if Ukraine fails to demonstrate progress in the main issue – steps to secure peace in the eastern regions,” Kosachyov said.

It is time to admit that last year’s Maidan protests did not resolve problems facing Ukraine, he said.

“The Maidan only helped replace people in power, and Kyiv is now at a logical impasse. Propaganda and domestic policy demand citizens’ mobilization in order to fight against the ‘external enemy’, while the international situation and the goal of integration with Europe require peace inside the country and the implementation of the Minsk accords,” the senator said.