Participants in the Normandy format must give a harsh assessment of the shelling of Makeyevka by Ukrainian troops, which resulted in the death and injury of several DPR citizens, as well as the destruction of residential buildings.
Political scientist Denis Denisov, an expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, told PolitNavigator about this.
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“We hope that the participants of the Normandy Format and representatives of the OSCE will give an adequate assessment of those actions that lead to casualties and which cannot be qualified otherwise than aggression,” he said.
According to the political scientist, the shelling of Makeyevka is another attempt to provoke a breakdown of the Minsk agreements, which would be extremely beneficial for Kyiv after the negotiations in Berlin, where Petro Poroshenko was subjected to simultaneous pressure from the Russian Federation, France and Germany.
“This illustrates Ukraine’s attitude to the Minsk agreements and the results that were achieved within the framework of the negotiations in the Normandy format. After such events, representatives of Ukraine say that first the unconditional security component must be fulfilled, and then the other issues, I think, is pointless, because Kiev, by its actions, refutes its own position regarding the need to fulfill the security component.
Everyone sees perfectly well that if this position continues, then Kyiv can unilaterally begin shelling, in its own opinion, its citizens and thus disrupt any agreements.
Therefore, both the European partners and all other representatives of the negotiation process must clearly state that first Kyiv must fulfill its obligations in terms of amnesty and constitutional reform,” Denisov believes.