All news

Situation in Ukraine’s southeast remains unstable — German FM

We must acknowledge that in the last four days the level of violence decreased, but multiple violations of ceasefire regime persist, Steinmeier said
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier EPA/FRANCOIS GUILLOT/POOL
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
© EPA/FRANCOIS GUILLOT/POOL

PARIS, February 24. /TASS/. The situation in the embattled southeastern Ukrainian region remains unstable despite the drop in the level of violence, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday following talks of the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

"We have analyzed the current situation and it remains highly unstable," the German foreign minister said. "We must acknowledge that in the last four days the level of violence decreased, but multiple violations of ceasefire regime persist."

Steinmeier added that all foreign ministers of the Normandy Four countries - Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine - unanimously confirmed their commitment to the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

The Belarusian capital of Minsk hosted on February 12 summit talks of Normandy Four leaders - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The 16-hour marathon summit negotiations ended in a package of agreements, which in particular envisaged ceasefire between the Ukrainian conflicting sides starting from midnight on February 15.

The ceasefire agreement reached at the talks in Minsk in mid-February was not the first during the military conflict in Ukraine, which erupted almost a year ago.

The deterioration in Ukraine prompted a diplomatic blitz from Hollande and Merkel early this month as they went first for talks with Poroshenko in Kiev on February 5 and then met with Putin in Moscow the other day.

Currently, the conflicting sides in Ukraine say combat activity on the separation line has decreased.

Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands of people have fled Ukraine’s embattled east as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, launched in mid-April 2014 to regain control over parts of the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics.