Russia Done Absolutely Nothing to Help End the Conflict and Withdraw Forces from Donbass – Volker

As the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker said during the interview to Voice of America Ukrainian Service, Ukraine will be at a disadvantage if it does not extend law on special status of Donbass. “I understand the frustration of Ukrainian lawmakers and the Ukrainian public, that they've taken steps such as passing the special status law passing an amnesty law, and Russia has done absolutely nothing to help end the conflict, to bring about security, withdraw its forces, and so forth” Volker said. According to him, the law is passed but has not been implemented. “There is no special status as of today. It only kicks in when there is an agreement, when Russia withdraws its forces, when there are local elections” added U.S. Special Representative. However, he believes that there will be more harm to terminate the law then to extend it. “I don’t see any harm in extending it. The situation from today would be no different the day after an extension was passed. So I actually think there’s no harm done. And then the flip side is that Russia will use this as an excuse to complain about Ukraine saying, “it’s not doing its share to implement the Minsk agreement”. So just don’t give Russia that argument. It doesn’t change anything anyway. Let the special status be extended” – expressed his confidence Volker. Volker believes that Ukraine should keep pressing Russia and not allow it to use the suspension of the law against Ukraine. As a reminder, the US Administration does not support holding of a referendum in eastern Ukraine and does not consider such a possibility. Source: Censor