The head of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, said that Moscow hopes to find a common solution with Kiev on the recognition of Crimea, the DPR and the LPR.
“I would not like to comment on what the Ukrainian side says during the negotiations and after them. We agreed not to make it public. According to them, this [recognition of Crimea as Russian and the sovereignty of the DPR and LPR] is practically impossible. In my opinion, there is a big difference between impossible and practically impossible. Both issues are of paramount importance for Russia, for the Russians, and, of course, for the position of our delegation. I hope that sooner or later we will find a solution,” Medinsky said after the end of the third round of negotiations with the Ukrainian side, TASS reports.
The head of the Russian delegation also stressed that on March 6, the Russian Federation prepared about 400 buses to evacuate civilians along humanitarian corridors, but because of the Ukrainian military, the evacuation was disrupted in places that are not controlled by official Kiev.
“We promised to open humanitarian corridors and did so. Let’s say just yesterday we kept about 400 large buses completely empty in order to take people out of the surrounded cities and take them wherever they asked. But all these 400 huge buses stood empty all day. Nobody came,” Medinsky said.
In his opinion, this is the only way this can be explained – this is the fact that the Ukrainian government does not control the armed forces in the surrounded cities and in the distant regions of the country. Ukrainian nationalists are not following orders from the Kiev government, Medinsky added.
“This is a real tragedy, but we continue to keep humanitarian corridors [open] and have decided to keep them open every day for several hours, during which the Russian side will fully comply with the ceasefire. By the way, the Ukrainian side does not comply with this regime and from time to time continues to shoot, making people afraid to go out,” he concluded.