Leonid Kuchma: Zakharchenko almost disrupted Minsk negotiations
The ex-President of Ukraine has described the meeting of the Contact Group during the summit of ‘the Norman Four’.
The contact Group had to sign the final documents together with militants’ leaders Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitski last week in Minsk. Then the state leaders (Petro Proshenko, Vladimir Putin, François Hollande and Angela Merkel) were supposed to receive it.
However, the militants almost disrupted the negotiations and the Presidents were about to leave, Leonid Kuchma said.
"When we sat down to sign the documents, Plotnitski and Zakhrachenko claimed that they would not sign anything because they were not satisfied with the agreement. They started saying that our soldiers were trapped in Debaltsevo and suggested making them lay down arms. It was like a dumb show. The Four almost left,” UNIAN quotes the ex-President of Ukraine.
The representatives of Donets Basin made a lot of remarks, he said. However, only one change was made: “The ceasefire was moved to 12 a.m. on February 15 instead of 8 a.m. on February 14.”
The main achievement of Minsk negotiations was the fact that Europeans, Putin and Poroshenko agreed to negotiate, Kuchma thinks. “Putin took responsibility for the signed documents.”
It is also important that Ukraine can control the border now, he added.
Photo: UNIAN.
