A revision of the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine is impermissible, instead the United States should be invited to the talks and thus the Geneva format approached, former Ukrainian President (1994-2005) Leonid Kuchma has said.
“Any revision of the Minsk accords is out of the question. Because today nobody will say what should be done in addition to what is written [in the Minsk memorandum]. This is the basis to which the whole world refers,” Kuchma who headed the Ukrainian side to the talks in Minsk said in comments aired on Channel 5.
He also expressed the conviction of the need to advance to the Geneva format of talks on the settlement in eastern Ukraine with U.S. involvement.
“I am also sure that today the Geneva format should be approached which would involve the United States of America which Russia has been opposing all the time. Because it is one thing to have the ambassador signing [the memorandum] in Minsk, and quite another to bear responsibility at a very different level,” Kuchma said.
On Tuesday Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk urged Russia to hold real talks on the Geneva format to deescalate the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
The Minsk memorandum was signed on September 19 by ambassador Heidi Tagliavini (OSCE), Leonid Kuchma (Ukraine), Russian ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov and also Oleksandr Zakharchenko (DPR) and Ihor Plotnitsky (LPR).
