The efforts of the participants in the settlement process in the Donbass are aimed at making Ukraine a single country, said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian President.
Journalists asked him whether the Kremlin’s position on the settlement in eastern Ukraine has changed.
“These are self-proclaimed republics that have announced their withdrawal from Ukraine, and, of course, we are all working to ensure that Ukraine becomes a single country where this intra-Ukrainian conflict will end”, – Peskov answered.
A media spokesperson asked the presidential spokesman whether the Kremlin insisted that the conflict was Ukrainian, “if Russian citizens are on the opposite side there”, and “Donbass has withdrawn from Ukraine”. To this, Peskov noted that he did not say that the Donbass had withdrawn from Ukraine, noting that the Kremlin still considers the conflict to be Ukrainian.
Peskov was also asked how correct it is that the citizens of the Russian Federation represent the LPR and the DPR at the talks in Minsk. A spokesman for the Russian president recalled that dual citizenship is permissible in self-proclaimed republics. He also noted that he sees no contradictions in the fact that the Russians represent the interests of the Ukrainian region.
“No, because they, first of all, by representing the interests of the Ukrainian region and the self-proclaimed republics, are citizens of these self-proclaimed republics, they have in their pocket the passports of the DPR and LPR”, – he said.