All news

German, French diplomats preparing new visit to Kiev over Minsk-2

Germany and France will do everything to see restart of the talks in the Normandy format
Foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop
Foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault
© AP Photo/Ferdinand Ostrop

BRATISLAVA, September 2. /TASS/. The foreign ministers of Germany and France, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault, prepare a new trip to Kiev to discuss implementation of the Minsk agreements, the top French diplomat said on Friday.

"We are ready with Frank-Walter Steinmeier to head to Kiev and are choosing the date to discuss the implementation of the Minsk agreements and to get out of the present inadmissible situation," the French foreign minister said upon his arrival in Bratislava for an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers.

"We see the ceasefire declared at the start of a new school year as a good sign for practical implementation of the Minsk deals," he said.

Jean-Marc Ayrault pledged that Germany and France would do everything to see restart of the talks in the Normandy format.

"Although we see Russia’s concerns over the Normandy format, not in its essence, but as a result of recent incidents in Crimea, we are full of determination to achieve the implementation of the Minsk agreements and we will do everything for the resumption of a productive dialog," he said.

On August 10, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced it had thwarted a sabotage attempt in Crimea plotted by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s main intelligence directorate. A number of saboteurs was spotted in the small hours of August 7 near the city of Armyansk, close to the border with Ukraine.

Two Russian servicemen were killed in the process of detaining the terrorists. The aborted terror attempts were designed to target Crimea’s critical infrastructure and vital facilities, the FSB revealed.