March 29, 2018 (BloombergPolitics) Russia,
France, Germany and Ukraine said they’ll examine ways to speed up progress on a
peace plan for eastern Ukraine and end a conflict that triggered sanctions
against Russia. Government leaders of the four countries welcomed an Easter
cease-fire taking effect Friday and called for international observers to be
allowed to verify it, according to joint statements published in Paris and
Berlin on Thursday.
A destroyed pro-Russian armoured personnel carrier near the city of Slovyansk in eastern Ukraine.
The four countries pledged to
“search in the months ahead for possible solutions to accelerate the implementation”
of the Minsk accords, which laid out military and political steps to end the
conflict between Ukraine’s government and pro-Russian separatists. The
governments also called for further prisoner swaps.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said
on March 12 that European Union sanctions on Russia could be “discussed” if
there’s “qualitative progress” in eastern Ukraine. French President Emmanuel
Macron reaffirmed France’s commitment to Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty in a
phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on March 19. Putin and Merkel are among the
signers of the Minsk accords in Belarus in February 2015. Sporadic fighting in
the eastern regions of Ukraine bordering Russia has continued and many terms of
the accords haven’t been met.
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