Lavrov confirms that Russia has no intention to recognize "DNR/LNR": it insists on "special status"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has once again made it clear that Russia would not recognize the independence of the so-called "DNR" and "LNR". He said this in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty, answering the direct question "Is Russia going to officially recognize these pseudo-state formations as independent?"

"Our position on this issue is well known. In accordance with the Minsk Set of Measures, one of the guarantors of which is Russia, Donbas should be given a special status (there is no such formulation in the Minsk Agreements - OstroV), which is permanently enshrined in the Constitution Ukraine. We believe that it is necessary today to focus on the implementation of the Minsk agreements, approved by the UN Security Council resolution and having a binding character", - S. Lavrov stated in response.

According to him, the Ukrainian leadership should turn its face to its own citizens. "For this, it is necessary to establish a constructive work of the Contact Group, where Kyiv, Donetsk and Luhansk are represented with the assistance of Russia and the OSCE", - he continued.

As previously reported, the Minsk agreements, first of all, provide for the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine by providing the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass with the status of "areas with a special order of local self-government". There is no talk about any "autonomy of Donbass". Under all the documents signed in Minsk, there are signatures, including of the puppet "DNR/LNR" leaders. Such concepts like the "DNR" or "LNR", as well as the names of any positions of "heads of republics", do not appear in the Minsk documents at all.