MOSCOW. Oct 17 (Interfax) - The negotiations on the Ukrainian crisis in Milan will be able to produce positive results only if Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko manages to establish his control over all forces active in the southeast of Ukraine, Andrei Purgin, first deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), told Interfax on Friday.
"Certainly, we expect common sense to prevail at these talks. However, we have no illusions and we understand that Poroshenko does not control all forces today. For example, the National Guard does whatever it wants, often without paying attention to the stance of the Ukrainian president. Despite the declared ceasefire, they continue strikes on residential areas of Donetsk," Purgin said.
He believes that the Ukrainian elite have now split into two groups.
"Obviously, the Ukrainian elite have split into a "party of peace" and a "party of war". And the latter one is absolutely not interested in settling the conflict by political methods and has been doing everything it can to maintain this conflict and fan it even further," Purgin said.