BERLIN, November 8. /TASS/. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko held phone talks on Friday, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
The two leaders spoke in particular “about the deteriorating humanitarian situation” in areas controlled by militiamen Seibert called “separatists” due to continuing hostilities in the embattled southeastern regions of Ukraine.
Seibert said the federal chancellor “expressed serious concern in connection with the latest reports” on what he claimed were “new movements of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory.”
Merkel and Poroshenko “confirmed the necessity to achieve a comprehensive truce and the soonest possible implementation of all other points of the Minsk agreements,” the German government spokesman said.
Fierce clashes between troops loyal to Kiev and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics, have killed over 4,000 people.
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in Belarusian capital Minsk. The ceasefire took effect the same day but has reportedly occasionally been violated.
The positions of Russia and Western nations on the Ukrainian developments differ radically. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the intra-Ukrainian crisis, but the West accuses Moscow of participation in clashes in Ukraine’s war-torn southeast and has subjected Russia to sanctions.