Russia confronts Ukraine in the armed conflict in the Donbass. This opinion was expressed by ex-representative of the OSCE in the trilateral contact group in Minsk Martin Sajdik in an interview with Kommersant.
The fact that Ukraine and Russia are parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine is confirmed by signatures of the Ukrainian and Russian representatives under the Minsk agreements.
"If you look at the Minsk agreements, how they are signed in the original document, you will see the signatures of Heidi Tagliavini (former head of the OSCE mission in the contact group, - ed.), Leonid Kuchma (representative of Ukraine in the TCG, - ed.) and (the former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Ukraine, - ed.) Mikhail Zurabov. Then the distance was missed - and there are Zakharchenko and Plotnitsky (ex-leaders of the "DNR" and "LNR" terrorist organizations, - ed.). Why are Ukraine and Russia at the top? Are they not parties to the conflict? That is why they are at the top. And there is one mediator - the OSCE", - Sajdik stated.
He does not agree with the assertion of the Russian party that the Russian Federation acted in Minsk as an intermediary. According to Martin Sajdik, 80-90% of access denials to the OSCE SMM observers are accounted for by the pro-Russian militants.
"Where is the mediation of Russia here? If someone is a mediator, he/she must act as a mediator. If the mediator is on the same side, then he is not a mediator, but a "one-sided" one", - Sajdik said.
As previously reported, the former OSCE representative in the trilateral contact group in Minsk had clearly stated that the Minsk agreements did not provide for autonomy for the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass.