Ukraine rejects possibility of direct dialogue with Russian-led forces in Donbas

 "Ukraine's position remains unchanged and is fully supported by our partners from France and Germany, stating that the Trilateral Contact Group – which includes Russia as an aggressor state, Ukraine as a state which defends itself from aggression, the OSCE as a mediator, and invited participants – remains a key mechanism for finding mutually acceptable solutions that should lead us to the end of the war and the de-occupation of our territories. I emphasized during the conversation that we were ready for a dialogue on any sensitive issues but we would never cross the Ukrainian ‘red lines’,” Kuleba said at an online briefing on Thursday, April 30, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

He informed that a certain part of the conversation had been devoted to the attempts of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov to "bring the interpretation of reality into a direct dialogue between Kyiv and conditional ‘Donetsk’ and ‘Luhansk.”

“In this regard, I would like to reiterate publicly that Ukraine is ready to speak with Ukrainians living in the occupied territories, and more so, we seek such a dialogue. But we must not speak with those illegal formations who are not authorized to properly represent the interests of Ukrainians from the occupied territories, as well as internally displaced persons who were forced to leave the war zone," the Ukrainian minister stressed.

Kuleba emphasized once again that the dialogue should evolve but the proven mechanisms of interaction within TCG serve this purpose and "this remains the basis of our work."

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