The territory of certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, currently seized by Russia-occupation forces, is 1,400 square kilometers more than indicated in the Minsk Agreements, which creates ambiguities in understanding the sphere of influence of the Minsk Agreements on these territories, representative of certain districts of Donetsk region in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) from Ukraine Serhiy Harmash said.

"We are still trying to find out from the representatives of Russia what kind of territory they understand by the concept of ORDLO. Because the one that, in fact, was captured by Russia-occupation forces, is 1,400 km more than the one indicated in the Minsk Agreements, and to what territory the Minsk Agreements apply then remains unclear," Harmash wrote on his Facebook page following an online TCG conference held on Tuesday February 16.

According to him, "this issue is no less fundamental than the definition of the parties to the conflict." "But even here we do not get a clear answer, even though it is written down in the Minsk Agreements. Moscow has an amazing ability to become deaf and blind when it does not want to see and hear something. Especially when it comes to the agreements it has signed," Harmash said.

He added that "at the meeting of the TCG working group on political issues, the question of the parties to the military conflict in Donbas was frequently raised." "In the seventh year of the war […] the representatives of Russia claimed that these were Ukraine and Donbas. What they mean by this concept is unclear. Probably part of Donetsk coal basin in Rostov region of the Russian Federation. Also from the other side sounded the version 'people of Donbas' - it is also not clear what the residents of Pokrovsk, Dobropillia, Kramatorsk and Mariupol did not share with Ukraine [...] plus one and a half million internally displaced persons," a member of the Ukrainian delegation said.

"We have clearly indicated that Russia and Ukraine are in conflict. And we asked not to make such provocations, because they distract the participants in the consultations from discussing the Action Plan proposed by Ukraine. It is clear that we cannot simply remain silent when such absurd statements are made, both in form and in content," Harmash said.