No to status quo in Donbas, Russian troops must leave Ukraine – Klimkin

11:19, 15.09.2016 1 min read

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that there won’t be status quo in Donbas, Ukrainian citizens should return to normal life.

"Donbas is an integral part of Ukraine for me, but not only due to the fact that Donbas is the millions of citizens of Ukraine. The status quo, you are speaking about, is actually a protectorate of the Russian military men and special services, but we need to return peace to the Ukrainian citizens, and after all, just a normal life, so that they could feel themselves as people, now they do not feel like people there," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with the foreign ministers of Germany and France in Kyiv on Wednesday, answering the journalists' questions.

According to him, people in Donbas can not feel safe, as "Russia is practically making Donbas its colony, it actually occupied Donbas."

"The logic of the Minsk agreements is that Russia should leave Donbas. We should first regain control over Donbas with the OSCE's help. Normal life there should be resumed after holding free and fair elections," Klimkin said.