MOSCOW. Oct 29 (Interfax) - Kyiv has agreed to consider a draft roadmap in implementation of the Minsk accords within one week, Russian envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Boris Gryzlov told reporters.
"At the Contact Group meeting on October 14, 2020, Donbas representatives proposed a draft roadmap, which is a step-by-step plan of a comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Donbas conflict in conformity with the Minsk Agreements and the UN Security Council resolution. After a long period of attempts to evade working on a roadmap, Kyiv has finally made commitments today to present within a week its own draft roadmap regarding issues touched upon in the proposals from certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Gryzlov said following a TCG meeting.
Gryzlov went on to express hope that this will help the sides find a way out of the deadlock in the talks.
"The Ukrainian delegation demonstrated the desire to move forward, making specific commitments and [giving] a timeframe of its own version's preparation. This is good news," he said.
The preliminary results of the latest Ukrainian election have demonstrated an increasing support for the political forces demanding that the government forge a dialogue with Donetsk and Luhansk, he said.
"The authorities in Kyiv should heed the voters and come back to implementing the Minsk Agreements," Gryzlov said.
Rodion Miroshnik, the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic's representative in the TCG, later recalled that any roadmap on the Minsk Agreements' implementation proposed by Kyiv and agreed upon within the TCG has yet to be endorsed by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.
A roadmap worked out by the Ukrainian side creates a chance of unblocking the negotiations, "which has reached an impasse as a result of the Ukrainian side's previous actions," he said, as quoted by the Luhansk Information Center.
"The roadmap will be fully consistent with the Minsk Agreements, with setting forth a special status in the constitution, with certain regions having their People's Militia, with the Russian language as the main language of communication, and the other mandatory points of the Minsk Agreements. We're expecting a document with appropriate parameters to emerge in a week to start the work on negotiating and elaborating a shared vision," Miroshnik said.