Kiev has no intention of fulfilling Minsk deal: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst in Moscow, to discuss a decision by the European Union to formally extend the economic sanctions against Russia over its alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine.

A rough transcription of the interview appears below.

Press TV: I guess the presumption here is that Russia is not implementing the Minsk agreement. Do you agree with that?

Sleboda: Well I should say that Russia is not implementing the Minsk agreement because Russia is not a party or a signatory to the Minsk agreement and has no commitments under the Minsk agreement, something that the Western press seems a little devoid in telling when they start repeating Western government lines about the Minsk agreement.

The Minsk agreement is between the West-backed putsch government that has seized control in Kiev and the resisting Republics in Donbass, the Donetsk National Republic and the Lugansk National Republic. That is who the Minsk agreement is between and the majority of the commitments lie with Kiev who has not fulfilled any of the political commitments, some hundred legislative acts would be needed in order to create the conditions under Minsk for a political reconciliation, allowing for OSCE monitor the elections in Donbass and so on, Kiev refuses to meet any of these because it knows very well that the moment that it accepts that, the resistance movement in Donbass has some political legitimacy, it could very well entail the end of the regime.

Press TV: This issue of Eastern Ukraine has been going on for such a significant amount of time now; I wonder do you see light at the end of the tunnel?  

Sleboda: No, I do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. We have seen a recent uptake in violence with increased shelling by Kiev of some of the suburban areas around Donetsk city, we have seen some of the hardest line ultra-nationalist and fascist paramilitary forces such as ISAF brigade which has been condemned across the press, moved back up to the front line where they will continue to engage in provocations perhaps even outside the direct control, if not the silent will of the regime in Kiev.

And once again we have seen no political progress in Kiev, whatsoever. They have no intention of fulfilling Minsk and numerous Ukrainian political figures most recently the speaker of the Rada, the neo-Nazi founder of the Social Nationalist Party Andriy Parubiy have said they have no intention of fulfilling Minsk and he is only the last in a long line of that. So I see a frozen conflict continuing in Eastern Ukraine for unfortunately a long time to come.

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