DPR official: Donbass has decisive voice at Minsk talks, Russia acts as mediator

Donetsk, Jan 20 – DAN. Russia assumes a neutral position at the Minsk talks, the final decisions are made by the Republics, said the advisor of the head of the Central Executive Committee of the Donetsk Republic social movement Andrey Bedilo.

In his interview to the Kommersant newspaper, Sajdik sharply criticized Russia’s role as a mediator in the Donbass conflict settlement, and blamed Donetsk and Lugansk directly for their unwillingness to be a part of Ukraine. At the same time, he justified Kiev’s failure to fulfill the agreements by the necessity to endorse all the decisions as one package, which should include the transfer of control over the Donbass-Russian border to Ukraine.

“Ukraine is one side of the Donbass conflict, and DPR and LPR are the other side. The Russian Federation and the OSCE are acting as mediators in the talks. We are surely grateful to Russia for its enormous support at the diplomatic and humanitarian front. The final decisions are always up to us,” Bedilo said.

In his opinion, Sajdik’s statement aims at expulsion of Donbass from the talks.

“The attempts of Ukraine’s western curators and, as it has turned out, some of the OSCE officials, to expulse Donbass from the talks are in a flagrant contravention with the spirit and letter of the Minsk Agreements where our participation in harmonization of all the aspects is stipulated.”

Bedilo called on the new OSCE representative at the talks, Ambassador Heidi Grau to asses Sajdik’s statement.*ot