Interfax: Peaceful settlement in Ukraine stalling over Kiev’s unwillingness to hold dialogue with Donbass – Putin

(Interfax – July 10, 2015)

The process of peaceful settlement in Ukraine is having difficulties because Kyiv has no wish to hold talks with Donbas, but chances of success are higher than chances of failure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a news conference in Ufa on July 10.

“It does seem to me that to a certain extent the settlement stalls because our partners in Kyiv have no wish to hold direct talks with Donbass – Lugansk and Donetsk,” he said.

This looks a bit strange because “partners from Kiev insisted that leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics appear in Minsk so that namely they sign these documents,” Putin said.

“Now we see that they do not want to deal with them [the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic], then why did they ask them to come and sign the documents? This is somewhat strange,” the president said.

“We will proceed from the premise that after all this is a tactical move. I am inclined to think that we rather have more chances of success than of failure,” Putin said.

According to the Russian president, “there is no other solution for the Ukrainian issue but the possibility of resolving it peacefully and via complete and unconditional execution of agreements reached in Minsk.”