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Ukrainian, German, French foreign ministers discuss disengagement of forces in Donbass

The discussion had centered on joint efforts for a real pullback of armed units along the entire contact line in Donbass
Foreign Ministers of France, Ukraine and Germany Jean-Marc Ayrault, Pavel Klimkin and Frank-Walter Steinmeier EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO
Foreign Ministers of France, Ukraine and Germany Jean-Marc Ayrault, Pavel Klimkin and Frank-Walter Steinmeier
© EPA/SERGEY DOLZHENKO

KIEV, September 14. /TASS/. Foreign Ministers of Ukraine, Germany and France Pavel Klimkin, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault have had talks in Kiev to discuss trust-building measures in the zone of the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine, Pavel Klimkin told a news conference later.

He said the discussion had centered on joint efforts for a real pullback of armed units along the entire contact line in Donbass.

Klimkin noted the role of the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in ensuring ceasefire in Donbass.

"Security is larger than an efficient ceasefire or further steps towards disengagement of troops," he said. "It also implies a hundred percent control on the part of the OSCE across Donbass."

"We'll continue working towards the SMM's presence in the districts adjoining the line of contact, as this would impede destabilization there," Klimkin said.

He once again aired Kiev's demands that the SMM should "get an opportunity to control everything that's happening along the section of the Ukrainian-Russian border, which is still outside of Ukraine's control."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said earlier his French counterpart, Jean-Marc Ayrault, and he planned discussing the possibilities for speeding up the implementation of the Minsk accords for peace settlement in eastern Ukraine with the Ukrainian president, prime minister and members of the Verkhovna Rada national parliament.