The head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, said that the United States should allegedly force Ukraine to comply with the Minsk agreements, which the Russian Federation does not comply with itself.. First of all, according to Lavrov, we are talking about granting the so-called “special status” to Donbass..

“There can be no plan “B” for the Ukrainian regime. There are only the Minsk agreements, which, as Mr. Minister emphasized in his opening speech, Kiev is obliged to fulfill to perfection, ”Lavrov said during a press conference with Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlich-Radman on January 17.

“Let’s not forget that American officials have spread complete disinformation about the invasion of the so-called Russia into Ukraine that we are preparing a provocation almost against the Russian-speaking population of Donbass in order to get a basis for the invasion. Moreover, Ms. Psaki said: as it was already in 2014. Indeed, the current tragedy of modern Ukraine began in 2014, but not because of some kind of provocation, but as a result of a coup d'etat supported and largely orchestrated by the United States,” Lavrov said..

The minister of the aggressor country claims that Ukraine is allegedly “under the external control of the United States, and Washington is quite capable of forcing the Kiev regime to comply with the Minsk agreements”.

During the press conference, Lavrov also stated that the implementation of the Minsk agreements was discussed during the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June 2021..

“There we saw and heard the understanding by the United States of what the essence of the Minsk agreements is, first of all, in the special status of Donbass and this, I hope the American colleagues will take care of this,” Lavrov said..

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Recall that in December last year, the Verkhovna Rada extended for a year the law “On a special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions”.

Article 10 of the document provides that a special procedure for local self-government is implemented exclusively by local self-government bodies that will be elected in early elections.

However, a special procedure for local self-government in certain areas of Donbass will come into force only after “the withdrawal of all illegal armed groups, their military equipment, as well as militants and mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine”.

For the first time, a law on a special procedure for local self-government in the temporarily occupied territories was adopted in September 2014.. The document entered into force on October 18, 2014 for a period of three years.. The Verkhovna Rada extended the validity of the document on September 6, 2017. After that, the law is extended for a year..