Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions following a Normandy format ministerial meeting, Minsk, November 29, 2016

A Normandy format meeting of foreign ministers has ended in Minsk. It was held upon instructions from the leaders of the Normandy format countries, who met in Berlin on October 19 to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Agreements of February 12, 2015. The implementation of these agreements is taking time, despite the almost continuous attention given to it by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine. We have not even coordinated the sequence of steps at the working level, the most important of which are security measures and political reforms. I am referring to a law on the special status for certain districts in Donbass, which must be formalised in the Ukrainian constitution, as well as an amnesty and local elections. We believe that the measures that should be taken to prepare these reforms are connected with security measures. The sequence of these steps was discussed in Minsk. We pointed to violations of our previous decisions on the withdrawal of heavy weaponry. Some of the withdrawn weapons return to the line of contact. Today we have provided data from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, according to which the Ukrainian Armed Forces permit many more such violations [than the Donbass forces]. The same concerns vehicles in the security zone and the regular disappearance of heavy weaponry from the heavy weapon holding areas, where they were stationed to stay.

In addition to the sequence of steps in the area of security and political reforms, we also discussed humanitarian and economic developments. We will support decisions that should be taken in accordance with the instructions our leaders issued in Berlin on October 19. They concern the OSCE observers’ access to the detainees on both sides of the contact line, the resumption of the provision of social services to the people, which they did not receive in the required amount, water supply, the elementary aspects of economic operation and many other issues.

Speaking about weapons withdrawal, we said that not just heavy weaponry but also the parties’ troops should be pulled back in accordance with our leaders’ agreement, starting with the so-called pilot areas on the line of contact – Zolotoye, Petrovskoye and Stanitsa Luganskaya. The initiative has failed in the first two of these towns. The process has not been launched in Luganskaya because of some problems in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In other words, we have not made any breakthrough today, but it is a positive achievement that the Berlin agreements of our leaders have not been disputed, as it happened before, including with regard to the Minsk Agreements and the decisions that were taken in Paris in October 2015.

We have agreed to continue working in the Normandy format at the level of lawyers, military experts and diplomats, as well as at the Contact Group and its subgroups, because no final solutions can be found outside this format. A final solution to the conflict can only be achieved when all parties to the conflict are represented, including the Kiev government and Donetsk and Lugansk representatives. Today we pointed out that the economic subgroup of the Contact Group, which is dealing with such vital issues as water supply, has been suspended: it has not met since August because the Ukrainian partner has refused to talk with the representatives delegated from Donbass. In keeping with a decision we have coordinated today, the economic subgroup must resume operation immediately to address the issues on its agenda.

Question: Do you think that an OSCE police mission should be deployed in Eastern Ukraine? When can this be done and on what conditions?

Sergey Lavrov: Your second question is not necessary, because there is no need for a police mission, and we did not discuss this issue today. The idea of an OSCE paramilitary or police mission, which Kiev is advocating, is not on the agenda.

Question: Did you discuss the situation in Aleppo?

Sergey Lavrov: No, today we only talked about Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. Syria does not fit into this agenda.