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Germany unsatisfied with implementation of Minsk agreements — government spokesman

A comprehensive ceasefire is of crucial importance, the German government is worried that it is not seen yet, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert says

BERLIN, February 23. /TASS/. Germany is not satisfied with the course of implementation of the Minsk agreements and is concerned over the fact that there is no full-scale ceasefire in Ukraine, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Monday.

"If we look at how the situation has developed on the whole since the moment when [the Russian, German, French and Ukrainian] leaders met in Minsk, it becomes clear that implementation of the agreed measures is unsatisfactory," Seibert said.

"A comprehensive ceasefire is of crucial importance. The German government is worried that we don’t see that yet," he said.

Clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April 2014, to regain control over parts of the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), have left thousands dead and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.

Regular talks of the participants of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement were held in Minsk on February 10-12. At that meeting of the Contact Group, a 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September Minsk agreements was adopted.

The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of the special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Talks of the Normandy Four leaders (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France) on the Ukrainian issue also ended February 12 in Minsk.