Putin: Russia does not oppose involving USA in Normandy Four

Effectiveness of the Minsk agreements is low, first of all, due to unconstructive position of the Ukrainian authorities. They are unwilling to launch a real political process that can be completed by implementation of the treaty on Donbass special status, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said at an annual press conference on December 14.

As he noted, the USA is in fact a full-fledged participant of the settlement process, no matter if it is in the Normandy format or not. Putin added that he never opposed involving the American party in the format.

“What is going on in Donbass is a tragedy, I can’t disagree with it. One must look at the source of the tragedy, which is the coup, an armed and unconstitutional power take-over. Part of the Ukrainian people disagreed with it, and special services were used against them, then full-scale armed forces operation was launched against them despite Ukraine’s aspirations towards the European civilization,” the Russian president said.

He stressed the Russian army is not in the territory of Donbass, saying there some militia units there that are self-sufficient and are ready to repel any large-scale military actions against Donbass. “We believe that it meets interests of local residents, because if they are not there, a massacre will start worse than in Srebrenica that will be organized by nationalistic battalions. We do comprehend it,” Putin said.