Kyiv.Ukraine.Ukraine Gate-October 28,2021- The head of the Russian delegation, Boris Gryzlov, to the tripartite contact group, left the group’s meeting online on October 27, just five minutes after it began.
This is according to Serhiy Harmash, the Ukrainian delegate representing certain regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (ORDLO).
Harmash said he was surprised to hear from a Russian news agency that Gryzlov called the conference one of the most intense and difficult ones in the history of the Minsk talks.
“Therefore, as you see, the work has not been suspended as even the head of the Russian delegation offers such a description … I don’t know what was Gryzlov’s problem, but he was there for the first five minutes and then left the meeting. Then the Russian delegation was represented by Mr. Kulmukhametov,” Harmash said.
And yesterday’s meeting, in his opinion, “was neither the most tense nor the most difficult.”
Harmash suggests that the reason for Gryzlov’s behavior may be that the two issues were brought up at the meeting. The first was the case of Andrei Kosiak, a member of the illegal armed group “LPR” and holder of a Russian passport who was arrested on October 13 near the (government-controlled) town of Zolote.
“We insist that Russia is a party to the conflict. Russia is increasingly pushing itself into a dead end by denying it. And now it raises the question of returning, to Luhansk for some reason, those who say he is a Russian citizen, Kosiak are demanding that the consul be given access to him. If access to The consulate, he is a Russian citizen, and if he is a Russian citizen, then why should we return him to Luhansk – moreover, without an official request from Russia. So for the sake of the Russian Federation this is a very embarrassing situation. Perhaps that is why Gryzlov (the meeting – ed.) was considered one of the most important meetings tension and difficulty,” said the Ukrainian delegate.
The second “hot” issue at the TCG meeting was the first-ever use by the Ukrainian Army in Donbas of a Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 strike drone.
“We confirmed that Bayraktar was indeed deployed, as it allowed suppressing the enemy firing point with surgical accuracy and least possible losses. Recently, the enemy has intensified its operations and sharpened confrontation at the front line. In order to reduce tensions, we were forced to take measures to suppress the firing point,” Garmash added.
On October 26, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that the military had for the first time used a Bayraktar reconnaissance aircraft and drone in the area of operations of the combined forces. The drone destroyed with a guided bomb an artillery unit operated by the Russian occupation forces without flying across the line of contact.