person:alexander zakharchenko

After months of deadlock, some progress made on Minsk II peace accords
▻http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/after-months-of-deadlock-some-progress-made-on-minsk-ii-peace-accords-3975

Adding intrigue to the mix were reports of a “coup” in the separatist-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast, in which the hardline separatist leader Andrey Purgin was replaced as speaker of the area’s pseudo parliament by the reputedly more pragmatic Denis Pushilin.

Commenting on the move on the Euromaidan Press website on Sept. 5, Russian journalist Kirill Mikhailov speculated that Purgin’s ouster might indicate that the Kremlin is seeking to end the deadlock over the Minsk peace process by removing from its proxy authorities in Donetsk those leaders who oppose the deal.

“Reacting to the controversial Ukrainian constitutional amendments providing for the Donbas’s special governance as per the Minsk agreement, Purgin outright rejected them, while Pushilin talked of dialogue with Kyiv over local elections (which are also part of Minsk agreement, that Pushilin, being part of the peace talks, may have actually read),” Mikhailov wrote.

In a further indication that separatist leaders might be softening their stance on implementing the Minsk accords, another separatist leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, said on Sept. 5 that “there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements.”

That was a marked change in rhetoric from Zakharchenko, who has previously said the Minsk agreements should be considered canceled.

ITAR-TASS: World - Contact Group on Ukraine meeting in Minsk
▻http://en.itar-tass.com/world/750396

A meeting of the Contact Group on the Ukrainian crisis settlement has started in Belarusian capital Minsk.

Like last time on September 5, the talks involve former Ukrainian president and the current president’s special envoy Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Igor Plotnitsky.

First deputy DPR premier Andrey Purgin, LPR Supreme Council chairman Alexey Karyakin, Russia’ s ambassador to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Ambassador Heidi Tagliavini are also taking part.
According to Kuchma, the Trilateral Contact Group comprising Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE will consider a memorandum whose first point is how to stop hostilities in Ukraine’s embattled southeast.
He expressed hope for progress and added that the issue of the OSCE’s role in strengthening the security regime on the Russian-Ukrainian border was also on the agenda. Besides, Kuchma said, the OSCE should take under its control “the situation with the zone that will have a local self-government”.

Karyakin confirmed to ITAR-TASS earlier today that the meeting’s key goal will be to negotiate issues of strengthening the ceasefire regime.