Minsk Peace Deal A Year Later: Dead Or Alive?

What You Need To Know:

✓ Pressure is on both Ukraine and Russia to fully implement the Minsk Agreement
 ✓ Russian propaganda presents Ukraine's reluctance to amend its constitution as the main obstacle challenging implementation
 ✓ "They want to destabilize the situation further in Ukraine.”
 ✓ “Pressure on constitutional amendments can destabilize the situation in the Parliament even farther than it is now.”

A year has passed since the second-round signing of the Minsk Peace Agreement. Despite the seemingly calmer situation in the Donbass region, pressure is being put on both Ukraine and Russia to fully uphold their promises in the deal.

“We always were committed to implementing the Minsk agreement,” says Olena Zerkal, Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister for European Integration. Without a clear sequence of actions, however, a dialogue with other partners will not be possible, she adds.

Zerkal blames Russian propaganda for attributing Ukraine’s reluctance to amend its constitution as the main obstacle in the implementation of the Minsk agreement: “They do this for a very particular reason, they know that they want to destabilize the situation further in Ukraine.”

The amendment would grant more autonomy to rebel-held Eastern provinces however Zerkal warns “this pressure on constitutional amendments can destabilize the situation in the Parliament even farther than it is now.”

Hromadske’s Alexandra Azarkhina spoke to Olena Zerkal, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for the European Integration on Ferbuary 11th, 2016 in Kyiv.