Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, First Deputy Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) Oleksiy Reznikov said that he and new Head of the Ukrainian delegation to TCG Leonid Kravchuk have the same position regarding the need for the Minsk Agreements in modernization.
“Leonid Makarovych [Kravchuk] is a wise man, and we assess the Minsk Agreements exactly in tune with him. Although we have not discussed them with him yet, we will do it on Monday. That is, he has the same point of view as me: that the Minsk agreements will definitely be modernized. Is it necessary to look for compromises? It is necessary. Is it necessary to end the war? It is necessary. I will say that the peculiarities of local self-government are already contained in these agreements,” he told journalists on July 31, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine.
Speaking about the idea of “free economic zones” in Donbas, Reznikov pointed out that he had previously received an order from the Prime Minister of Ukraine, and together with the Finance Minister and the Economy Minister, he was working on the idea of “priority development areas.”
“We are talking about the fact that we should now create an opportunity for priority development of the territories of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions, controlled by the government of Ukraine, that is, to make points of growth there, to attract investments there, to make certain preferential regimes there. I just really do not like the phrase ‘free economic zones,’ it is somewhat discredited. Therefore, we are looking for another abbreviation. The essence is something like this, namely, to give points of growth, to give the investor a desire to come with risky capital and start investing there, as well as local, medium, small, large and western ones,” he said.
Reznikov also remains optimistic about whether a sustainable ceasefire will continue in Donbas. “I am a very optimistic person and I really hope that the ceasefire regime will maintain. Although everything is possible, including provocations or incomprehensible behavior of representatives of the Russian Federation,” he said.
