MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) – Ten years ago Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko delayed the Normandy Four talks in Minsk and refused to approve the proposed document because of Debaltsevo, Vladislav Deinego, who was the authorized representative of the Lugansk People's Republic at the negotiations of the Minsk Contact Group on the settlement of the conflict in Donbass, said in the documentary "In Search of Peace" aired by the Belarus 1 TV channel, BelTA learned.
"The month of January [2015]. For two weeks we traveled to Minsk every other day. The OSCE would set a date for the meeting and Ukraine would not show up. At this stage, the Normandy Four, as the body that took over the coordinating function of this negotiation process, decided to hold a joint meeting of the Normandy Four and the Contact Group. The purpose of this step was either to incentivize Ukraine to show up for the meeting after all, or to make sure that Ukraine was impossible to talk to. So, for this purpose, the Normandy Four scheduled a meeting in Minsk. In the same place where the Contact Group was to meet," Vladislav Deinego said.
According to him, the Contact Group meeting was supposed to be held at The President Hotel. "But when the German delegation arrived, Mrs Merkel [Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany] learned that representatives of Donbass would also be present here, and she categorically stated: ‘I will not enter the same building with terrorists.’
"The month of January [2015]. For two weeks we traveled to Minsk every other day. The OSCE would set a date for the meeting and Ukraine would not show up. At this stage, the Normandy Four, as the body that took over the coordinating function of this negotiation process, decided to hold a joint meeting of the Normandy Four and the Contact Group. The purpose of this step was either to incentivize Ukraine to show up for the meeting after all, or to make sure that Ukraine was impossible to talk to. So, for this purpose, the Normandy Four scheduled a meeting in Minsk. In the same place where the Contact Group was to meet," Vladislav Deinego said.
According to him, the Contact Group meeting was supposed to be held at The President Hotel. "But when the German delegation arrived, Mrs Merkel [Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany] learned that representatives of Donbass would also be present here, and she categorically stated: ‘I will not enter the same building with terrorists.’
This statement very clearly exposed Merkel's attitude to Donbass. And thanks to Belarus, they very quickly changed the location of the Contact Group meeting – it was held in the Dipservice Hall."
"This was probably the tenth attempt to convene a meeting to discuss the Package of Measures. Actually, such a document as the Package of Measures was born because the documents signed in September [of 2014] - the protocol of 5 September, the memorandum of 19 September - did not produce results. From the point of view of the Normandy Four, this process made little headway, so they decided to somehow streamline it and come up with a roadmap that would spell out the sequence and stages of implementing the agreements reached in September. That is why the document is called the "Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements". It did not provide for any new steps. It just determined the order, the internal structure, the logic of the settlement process," Vladislav Deinego said explaining the details.
He went on saying that the work on this document was going on in the autumn and winter, mostly in December 2014.
The document had to be approved by the Normandy Four first. "And the Normandy Four were faced with the fact that Poroshenko flatly refused to approve it. Moreover, he was interested in only one thing - Debaltsevo," Vladislav Deinego said.
This town was of strategic importance during the conflict, as it served as a transportation and logistics hub. In addition, it is located on a hill, which gave the side that controlled it a strategic advantage.
Head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin said in the documentary that the Donbass militia, although outnumbered side, managed to drive the Ukrainian army out of Debaltsevo. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko disagreed with this and would not acknowledge this fact for a long time.
“That was why Poroshenko had to leave the Green Hall several times and call his headquarters. Initially, there were some speculations that he might have called Washington. Any attacks were allowed in order to force the DPR and LPR forces off Debaltsevo,” the documentary noted.
Vladislav Deinego shared some details about the meeting: “[French President] François Hollande tried to convince Poroshenko that there was the operational encirclement, based on the data of his intelligence. It means that the French intelligence agencies tried to convince Poroshenko that he had insufficient information and there was actually an operational encirclement there.”
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