The view from Donetsk, particularly after the recent wave of shelling attacks on civilian areas of the city, is that there is no negotiating with the Kiev regime. The only way that the shelling is going to be stopped is by the military defeat of the armed forces of Ukraine. Donetsk People’s Republic leader Denis Pushilin expressed the view, during an interview on Russia’s Rossiya 1 TV yesterday, that there is no possibility of talks to end the conflict. “If we talk seriously, then there can be no talk about agreements with Kiev,” Pushilin said, reported TASS. “First, Kiev is not independent. We’ve learned that during the Minsk talks. Second, it also does not seem possible to count on guarantors of agreements, whoever they may be. We’ve seen the recent statement by [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel, who effectively confessed in actions aimed at non-implementation of the Minsk Agreements. The level of trust for European states is close to zero.”
The D.P.R. sees no objective preconditions to talk about negotiations with the U.S. as well, Pushilin continued. “Washington is complacent with both this conflict and the gradual loss of Europe’s economic potential, who gradually stops being the U.S.’ competitor even in theory. So, there is no one to negotiate with, we only have to win [on the battlefield]. There are no other ways to stop this conflict, these shellings, war crimes of the Kiev regime and its accomplices—the Western states,” he remarked.
