Russia Accused Kyiv of Disrupting the Agreement on Donbas

Russia’s representative in the Contact Group on settling the conflict in southeastern Ukraine Boris Gryzlov accused Kyiv of disrupting the agreement on the procedure for legal and actual consolidation of Donbas special status, reported by Interfax. “The main outcome of the contact group meeting is that Kyiv representatives refused to sign the Steinmeier formula,” Gryzlov said. Earlier on September 18, it became known that Kyiv at a meeting in Minsk refused to sign the Steinmeier formula to consolidate a special status for Donbas. As a result, the meeting in the Normandy format was in danger of collapse, said a TASS source familiar with the negotiations of the contact group on settling the conflict in southeastern Ukraine. On the same day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Prystaiko said that Kyiv agreed on the use of the so-called “Steinmeier formula” in resolving the armed conflict in Donbas. The Steinmeier formula is the proposal of former German Foreign Minister, the current President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier. It provides for consolidating a special status for Donbas, as well as a possible amnesty and holding elections in territories not controlled by Kyiv. Lenta