10:48 06.10.2015

West not ready to see either 'freezing' or escalation of Donbas conflict – Ukrainian foreign minister

2 min read
West not ready to see either 'freezing' or escalation of Donbas conflict – Ukrainian foreign minister

Some Western leaders are ready for a compromise on dates for holding elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but they do not want to see either a 'freezing' of the conflict in Donbas or, still less, its escalation, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.

"If we manage to agree on the modalities of these elections on the basis of Ukrainian legislation and on the basis of OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) standards, then, certainly, such elections will not be held there tomorrow (…) But they should take place at some point. In this sense, I see that some of our foreign partners, albeit not all of them, are ready for a possible compromise," Klimkin said during the 'Freedom of Speech' program shown on the ICTV television channel on Monday evening.

The minister also said he was convinced that the West was not ready to see either an escalation of this conflict or its 'freezing'.

It would be desirable to complete the implementation of the Minsk agreements before the end of the year because "dragging out the sufferings of Donbas will not benefit anyone," Klimkin said.

Western politicians realize that another instance of 'fake' elections will cause the Minsk talks to hit a stalemate and will not help stabilize the situation in Donbas, the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

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