KYIV. Feb 15 (Interfax) - Kyiv cannot abandon the Minsk Agreements, despite the fact that they are merely a politico-diplomatic document, but its text needs to be updated, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksii Reznikov said.
"The Minsk Agreements are of a politico-diplomatic nature. They are agreements, but this is by no means an international agreement, let alone international law. But that doesn't mean that Ukraine can abandon the Minsk Agreements," Reznikov said at a press conference on the issue of the Minsk Agreements.
"The Minsk Agreements remain the only foundation we have so far whose principles and main objectives are to stop the war in Donbas," he said.
At the same time, Reznikov stressed the need to update the agreements.
"As a lawyer, I don't like the text of the Package of Measures to Implement the Minsk Agreements, in particular Clause 9, which talks about the sequence for conducting local elections in Donbas and the handover of control over the Ukraine-Russia border. At the very least, this clause requires an update and review, otherwise it can't be implemented in its current form," Reznikov said.
Reznikov urged Russia to peruse the agreements. "Clause 1: security issues. Without settling the security issue, the implementation of certain political things is out of the question. Yet Russia has continually insisted on the priority of political settlement, while forgetting about security," he said.
Iryna Herashchenko, the parliamentary co-chair of the European Solidarity party, said, in turn, that she has seen no changes in Russia's position in the Minsk negotiations. "I see no changes in the position of the Russian Federation, nor on the part of the Certain Districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. Obviously, these latter two are agents of Russian influence. Their goal, which consists in discrediting the Minsk platform, still runs through their narrative," Herashchenko said.