LUHANSK. Jan 19 (Interfax) - Another meeting of the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine (TCG) has been unproductive, the Foreign Ministry of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) said in a statement.
"The humanitarian subgroup has finalized its work. The talks were unproductive, Ukraine was not ready to meet its obligations as agreed," the LPR Foreign Ministry said after the humanitarian subgroup meeting.
The meeting addressed the opening of additional checkpoints, Luhansk-Shchastya and Pervomaisk-Zolote, on the Donbas contact line. "LPR representative Olga Kobtseva put forward another compromise offer in order to unblock the issue, but the Ukrainian side was not ready to discuss it either, and promised to present its standpoint by the next conference. As a result, the opening of additional checkpoints in the LPR remained blocked by the Ukrainian side," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian side has also demonstrated its unpreparedness to discuss the exchange of captives, the ministry said. "Once again, the Ukrainian representatives are avoiding the fulfilment of their obligations as agreed, including the pledge to expunge sentences of persons who are due to be released or have been released earlier. This stance of the Ukrainian side makes the soonest release impossible," it said.
Kobtseva, who represents the LPR in the humanitarian subgroup, also raised the question of the blown-up trunk gas pipeline near Luhansk on January 15, which the LPR had blamed on Ukraine, the ministry said. "She [Kobtseva] underlined that all materials in that proceeding were directed to the OSCE SMM and insisted on starting an impartial international investigation of the fact. Subgroup coordinator [from the OSCE SMM] Toni Frisch confirmed that the republic's stance had been relayed to the relevant bodies," the ministry said.
It was reported later that parties to the TCG political subgroup also failed to make progress on their agenda during a videoconference.
"The political subgroup has finalized its meeting. The full-value work on the items on the agenda was not done due to the Ukrainian side's unpreparedness to carry out a substantive dialogue," the LPR Foreign Ministry said following the political subgroup's meeting.
The subgroup meeting participants "failed to make headway in the elaboration of specific decisions on the fulfillment of the Minsk Agreements," the ministry said.