KIEV (Sputnik) — The only alternative to the Minsk accord aimed at the crisis settlement in Ukraine is abandoning the Donbass region by Kiev, but such situation is unacceptable, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Sunday.
"There are proposals [as an alternative to the Minsk accord]: let's get rid of Donbass, let's give it to someone as a gift, let's construct a wall, let's forget about Donbass because allegedly we would never return it. It is unacceptable for me," Poroshenko said at a press conference, adding that the Minsk peace deal was working and there was no need to look for new formats of settlement.
In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.
