Refat Chubarov: Minsk Can No Longer Host Donbass Negotiations

After the Belarusian authorities attempted to disrupt the UN voting on Crimea, it seems worth it to move the venue of Donbass negotiations to Warsaw.

MP of Ukraine, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov has written this on his Facebook page.

“The truth is, on the eve of the session (November 15, 2016) of the United Nations’ Third Committee Russia assigned Belarus to the role of a swindler, aimed at disruption of consideration of a draft resolution on the human rights situation in the Crimea, occupied by Russia,”— he has written.

The head of Mejlis has underlined that the responsibility for such humiliating role of Belarus totally lies on the Belarusian official authorities.

“It also looks obvious that Minsk can no longer host meetings and negotiations on the whole range of issues connected with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” — Chubarov has underlined.

In turn, political analyst Victor Kaspruk is convinced there should be no rush in the political casuses like this, as Belarus’ president Aliaksandr Lukashenka remains bounded by the pressure from Moscow.

“He keeps trying to wear two hats. In this case, Moscow put too huge a pressure on him and he was forced to do what he did. However, on the other hand, he let Russia open military bases at the territory of Belarus, which can hardly be considered as a gesture of friendship towards Ukraine,” — inforesist.org quotes Kaspruk.

As for the Minsk format of talks, it has exhausted itself since long ago, the political analyst thinks.

“We are not talking about starting some other format. The question is, after Donald Trump became president of the United States it would be wise to involve him into this. After this, the negotiations could be moved from Minsk to Warsaw, when the United States and the Great Britain join them. I think Trump will be a strong president and, using the diplomatic approach, will manage to prove to Putin it is time to finish the game he had started with Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Minsk format died when Belarus supported the Crimea annexation,” — he has underlined.

Alongside with that, political analyst Uladzimir Tsybulka thinks, the situation requires taking the following measures.

"Ukraine should demand to move the tripartite negotiations of the contact group to the neutral territory. It would be advantageous to hold them in Warsaw, but I do not think it will suit Russia. I think that the issue of transfer of meetings should be brought up for discussion ", — Tsybulka has said.

As previously reported by the website charter97.org, on November 15 Belarus tried to disrupt the United Nations’ vote on the Crimea. Later, however, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that the draft resolution on human rights violations in the Crimea was nevertheless adopted at the meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly.

73 countries - members of the United Nations voted for the draft resolution, 23 — against, another 76 abstained. Among the countries that voted against the resolution were Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan.