Russia is not showing interest in meeting with the U.S. representative on Ukraine and does not want to take actions to settle the conflict in Donbas during the presidential campaign in Ukraine, United States Department of State Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker has said.
The United States is always for meeting and talking, but Russia is showing no interest or progress on this matter and they essentially said they do not want to do anything during the presidential election, Volker told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 17.
Speaking about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, he said the Minsk Agreements are extremely important and the United States would like them to be implemented. The Minsk Agreements are about peace, heavy weapons withdrawal, and elections, amnesty, implementation of the special status of Donbas, if conditions can be created there, and restoration of Ukrainian control and sovereignty over the territory, he said. The United States supports them and the only thing that needs to be done is to implement them, he said.
In the meantime, Volker admitted that the Minsk Agreements are not working properly. They have never worked well as Russia has refused to implement them, he said. There has never been a ceasefire, heavy weapons withdrawal or cooperation on this matter, Volker said.
