Any change in the Minsk negotiations' format cannot resolve the situation, Ukrainian representative to the Trilateral Contact Group for Donbas and former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said.

"We have been hearing numerous suggestions of changing the format or expanding it with someone else. What's the point? The quantity will make no difference," Kuchma said at the Baltic-Black Sea forum titled 'Dawn of Europe: historical patterns of civilizational choice' in Kyiv on Thursday.

The EU sanctions are leading to Russian economic losses, however, certain goods and resources are being substituted, Kuchma said. "We are hoping that the United States can really play a decisive role in this situation. Let us pin hopes on it, or else all we can count on is the Lord," he said.