Russia was ready to support Germany's and France's proposals to hold local elections in Donbas in the first half of 2016; however, Ukraine asked not to insist on it and a consensus was not reached, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“Our German and French colleagues voiced a proposal at the today’s meeting to call on the parties to reach an agreement on holding local elections in Donbas on the basis of the Minsk documents in the first half of the year, by June or July,” Lavrov said after a meeting of the Normandy Format foreign ministers in Paris.
“We were ready to support it, but the Ukrainian side asked not to insist on it, and a result no consensus was reached,” he said.
The local elections in Donbas require a law granting special status on a permanent basis, as well as constitutional reform, Lavrov said.
At the latest talks, Moscow drew the sides’ attention to the fact that “the key and the core of the entire Minsk process is direct dialogue between Kyiv and Donbas,” but such dialogue cannot be seen at this point “primarily because of Kyiv’s unwillingness to enter it,” the minister said.
“As far as I understood, Germany and France completely understand that the sequence of measures documented in the Minsk agreements and confirmed by the ‘Normandy Four’ leaders in Paris is unshakable. This sequence means movement in an interrelated manner to hold the elections, the enactment of the law granting special status on a permanent basis, the inclusion of this special status in the constitution and conducting an amnesty,” Lavrov said.
