President of Ukraine

Ukraine will not accept destructive attempts to disrupt the peace process (regarding the abolition of inspection in the area of Shumy)

10 September 2020 - 14:21

As we expected, the representatives of illegal armed groups in ORDLO did not expect a constructive position from Ukraine. Belief in one's own propaganda and detachment from reality prevents one from adequately assessing what is happening. As of this morning, we have received a number of contradicting demands from them, which distort the nature of the ceasefire agreements and further humiliate the OSCE as an authoritative and objective mediator. That is why the "one-time inspection" of only one point agreed within the security subgroup of the TCG will not take place. Due to the constant changes in the requests of the Russian party.

The OSCE has repeatedly confirmed that the Ukrainian party has in no way violated the terms of the ceasefire in Donbas. For six weeks since July 27, Ukraine has faithfully complied with all conditions. We can and want to continue to do this in order to move from "silence" in Donbas to sustainable peace. We state that the representatives of illegal armed groups demonstrate that they have a completely different goal, namely, PR instead of peace.

If in Donetsk they are not able to find the settlement of Shumy in the Donetsk region on the map of Europe, about which we have heard complaints many times, and now randomly select new settlements for inspection, then we can only sympathize.

The Ukrainian party, in good faith and for the final confirmation of its honesty, agreed that the OSCE representative, in the presence of the parties' representatives on the line of delimitation, record the fact of absence of violations of the ceasefire agreements by Ukraine. Accordingly, the Ukrainian party addressed a proposal to look at the areas where illegal ORDLO armed groups are located, where the monitoring mission did record the facts of violations. However, we did not receive an adequate answer. The proposed format provided for the technical nature of such actions, namely: in civilian clothes, without odious representatives. A purely technical procedure. However, this is not possible today for objective reasons. The key of which is the absence of violations on our part. Quarantine restrictions also affect the details of how the inspection could take place in the area of Shumy.

Given all this - the actual refusal of Russia and representatives of illegal armed groups in ORDLO to adhere to the agreements reached and work on the basis of common sense in order to confirm the true facts about the situation on the line of delimitation - we state that the inspection in the area of Shumy, the Donetsk region, cannot be conducted at the moment.