28 November 2016, Monday, 19:55 95

Kuchma Doubts Deployment Of OSCE Police Mission In Donbas

Former (1994-2005) president Leonid Kuchma, who is Ukraine's representative in the Trilateral Contact Group on resolution of the conflict in Donbas (which is made up of Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and Russia), doubts the possibility of deployment of an armed OSCE police mission in Donbas.

Kuchma announced this to reporters in Zakarpattia region, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Hope is the last thing to die. Are 57 countries hoping to vote for a police mission? There are no examples... This is a problem to which I see no solution," he said.

At the same time, Kuchma said that the current OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine is not monitor the separation of forces in the agreed area of Stanytsia Luhanska (Luhansk region) at nights.

"Withdrawal of forces to a point in the Luhansk direction. There should be OSCE cameras there. There is nobody there at night, so the special monitoring mission's cameras should at least be working. However, they are still not working either because the generator is not working or some other reason. This allows the sides to violate the peace agreement at nights and blame each other... If there is no control, then that is the result... Therefore, there is hope, but unfortunately ... the Russian side initially agreed (to deployment of a police mission) very quickly because they know that 57 countries (must vote on a decision to deploy a police mission) and that it is a difficult decision," he said.

Kuchma also believes that the sanctions against Russia are currently harming the country, but they will play a positive role in the future.

"We ourselves can see that Russia will survive the trade sanctions... Maybe I am saying those things that are not worth talking about: with trade sanctions, we are helping Russia to realize that it cannot be a mere supplier of raw materials, and it is now focusing all its attention on new technologies and the like. For them, the problems are financial, i.e. loans and debt. From the viewpoint of trade sanctions, yes, it is a great loss for Russia, but it will yield more positives than negatives," he said.

Kuchma also said that Ukraine alone would not be able to resolve the conflict in Donbas. Asked who could help Ukraine to resolve the conflict as a partner, he replied that it would depend on the political will of foreign countries and not on specific countries.

"A group on the Karabakh conflict was set up in 1992. It consisted of 8 + 2: the United States, France, Germany, and Italy, but the conflict has still not been resolved. Nothing will happen if there is no will on the part of these countries and if the United States does not fully engage. If there is a game of peace and friendship among all nations, local problems will be solved and the Ukrainian side will be on the sidelines. We will remain in the current state and quickly go downward," he said.

President Petro Poroshenko recently said that control over the Ukrainian-Russian border by an OSCE police mission was one of the conditions for holding elections in some districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Roman Bezsmertnyi, a former participant in the negotiation process in the political affairs subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, has expressed doubt that an OSCE police mission will be deployed in Donbas.

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