Putin: Why aren’t the EU and the US pressuring Ukraine into executing the Minsk agreements?

Russia thinks that the Minsk agreements are fair and well-balanced and is doing its best to convince one of the conflicting parties - the unrecognized republics of Donetsk and Lugansk - to negotiate all of their points, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on June 16.

“You can’t but notice that their attitudes have changed and they are ready and willing to negotiate,” Putin said.

He said that had there been something wrong in the agreements, Russia would have never signed them.

“The key elements are the points stipulating political settlement. The first one suggests amending Ukraine’s Constitution and providing autonomy to those territories or, as they in Kyiv term it, decentralizing power. The second point suggests adopting a law on amnesty with respect to a number of individuals from the Donetsk and Lugansk republics. The third point says that Donbass should be given a special status. The fourth one says that Ukraine should adopt a law on local government and should conduct local elections. And the fifth point requires lifting the economic blockade of the territories,” Putin said.

He added that these points are not within the competence of Donbass but are the prerogative of the Kyiv authorities.

Putin wonders why the EU and the US aren’t pressuring the Kyiv regime into solving the abovementioned problems. “The Minsk agreements say that all of them should be settled in coordination with Donetsk and Lugansk. So, the parties have no other way but to sit down at the negotiating table and try to come to terms,” Putin said.