Lack of Kiev's Political Will Hinders Settlement of Conflict in Ukraine

DONETSK (Sputnik) — The conflict in southeastern Ukraine could be settled very soon if Kiev had political will to do so, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic's (DPR) negotiator said Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the so-called Normandy Four group on Ukraine has concluded in Berlin. The four chief diplomats from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine were expected to gauge Ukrainian peace progress and steps taken to implement last year’s Minsk accords aimed at putting an end to hostilities in Ukraine’s southeastern areas.

"In case Kiev had a political will, it could solve the conflict, it could end it much earlier. Now all the actions of Kiev are pushing Ukraine closer to the final breakdown," Denis Pushilin told RIA Novosti in an interview.

Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.

In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, a weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in the southeast.