Ukraine to do everything to fulfill Minsk agreements on our part - Yermak

KYIV. Feb 13 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Minsk agreements are almost impossible to implement in the version in which they were signed, however, the Ukrainian side will do everything to implement them, head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak said.

"To be honest, in the edition in which they exist today, it sometimes seems to me that they were signed with the goal and understanding that it was impossible to fulfill them, but Ukraine, and the president has said this many times, will do everything so that the principles laid down in the Minsk Agreements are fulfilled on our part," Yermak said as part of a special edition of the Ukraine with Tigran Martirosian program on the Ukraine 24 channel on Saturday night

Yermak said that "there is progress in negotiations, although they are very slow and difficult."

"The Ukrainian side managed to radically change the representation in the Minsk process and raise the level of unconditional support from our European partners, Germany and France," he said. Yermak also said that "it is very important that together with us in Donbas there were representatives-ambassadors of our partner states - Germany, France and the participants of the Normandy format, as well as the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Sweden. It is important for us that they came, and saw with their own eyes what is happening, as well as how Ukraine will fulfill its obligations."

To the question "Is the ceasefire still in place?" the head of the President's Office replied that "the ceasefire continues."

"Despite the provocations [from the Russian Federation and ORDLO], that happen now, they are incomparable with those times when there was no ceasefire regime. It is impossible to hide that there are dead and wounded. But, if we compare the figures, the losses that our army suffered in the same period, for example, a year ago, then, of course, this is several times less," Yermak said.

At the same time, he said that "while agreeing on a new roadmap, a new plan [Plan of joint steps presented by Leonid Kravchuk], which should be based on the principles of the Minsk agreements, it is undoubtedly necessary to make adjustments to give impetus to the negotiations in order to save them."

Yermak said that "after six years of signing the Minsk agreements, there are virtually no tangible results."