MINSK, 20 April (BelTA) - Ukraine has not officially refused from Minsk as the venue for negotiations on the settlement of the situation in the Donbass. There are no alternatives to Minsk as the setting for peace talks at the moment, member of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Evgeny Shevchenko said as he talked to the media after a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk on 20 April, BelTA has learned.
"This is what a member of the trilateral contact group said. Then other members denied such rumors. So far, Ukraine has not left Minsk as the venue of peace talks,” the deputy said. "There is no alternative."
Evgeny Shevchenko believes that despite some difficulties in bilateral relations, the peoples of Belarus and Ukraine remain very close. “Temporary misunderstandings will go away anyway," he noted.
"I am a representative of the people, and was elected directly by people and I have this inner feeling that Ukrainians have always had a warm regard for Belarusians no matter what. I can say this with confidence," the politician stressed.
When asked how the countries can heal the relations, Evgeny Shevchenko said that it should be done through dialogue. "People are social beings. They find common ground when they see each other, when they meet, communicate. There is no other way," he said.
