Foreign Ministers of Germany and France do not force Ukraine to grant a special status to Donbass immediately – Klimkin

The Foreign Ministers of Germany and France do not force Ukraine to grant a special status to Donbass immediately. It was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin in Kramatorsk during the meeting with the Foreign Minister of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier and France Jean-Marc Ayrault, - reports the correspondent of OstroV.

"This is not a council ... In fact, we have a lot of comments, but when they comment on the statements (Foreign Ministers of Germany and France- OstroV) Steinmeier and Eyraud, they (commentators - OstroV) go in the wrong direction. Everybody understands that there will be no further steps without security. So now we must move from deliniatio , strengthening the OSCE, so that the OSCE will actually control the situation and come to the border, and then we'll talk about some progress in the security ... They (the European ministers - OstroV) understand that we need to move by political means and through the release of the hostages. Nothing will work without these components. They mean it when speaking about parallel. They don’t force us,"- said Klimkin.

Speaking on the special status, the Minister said that "if we do something, it will mean that those appointed by Russia to be the authorities will be legitimized and nothing more" and "Russian Donbass as a colony will be pushed into Ukraine."

Klimkin said that the purpose of the Ukrainian authorities was to "bring Ukrainian Donbass back to normal life."

As previously reported, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Marc Eyraud said that the settlement of the conflict in Donbass should take place step by step and include granting a special status to separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and provide an amnesty. According to him, the settlement of the first stage should include a cease-fire and withdrawal of troops in the three pilot areas. Subsequent steps include adoption of the law on local elections and the special status of occupied. Donbass by the Rada. In the third stage the Verkhovna Rada should adopt a date for local elections in SDDLR and adopt amnesty laws. Parallel to this, in his opinion, withdrawal of troops of warring parties will take place across the front lines, new checkpoints will be established, hostages will be released, then the final removal of troops will take place and full access to the border that is currently uncontrolled by the authorities of Ukraine will be ensured.