Kiev Aims to Postpone Ukraine Political Settlement Groundless - Russian Envoy

Kiev's attempts to postpone the start of the Donbas political settlement until all security problems are resolved are baseless, as under the Minsk deal the two issues have to be addressed at the same time, Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Tuesday.

WARSAW (Sputnik) — The Minsk deal, agreed to settle the Donbas conflict, provides for a sequence of steps on the ceasefire, arms withdrawal and the beginning of a political process. According to Alexander Lukashevich, the deal stipulates that these processes are interrelated and should be implemented concurrently.

"Recent attempts by the Ukrainian side and the Western countries to tie the beginning of a political process to a [complete] solution of security problems have absolutely no explanation, no basis agreed between the parties to the conflict," Lukashevich told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights' (ODIHR) Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Poland.

The envoy recalled that the Ukrainian forces and the volunteer military units had repeatedly violated the security agreements.

The Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation in the country's eastern regions since April 2014. In February, 2015 Kiev and the southeastern militia signed a deal on Ukrainian reconciliation in Minsk, including a ceasefire, its monitoring and verification, and the withdrawal of weapons from the line of contact, among other points.