PARIS, July 6. /TASS/. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has reiterated Paris’ commitment to the implementation of the Minsk agreements on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday following talks with his French counterpart.
"We said that both Russia and France are fully committed to the Minsk agreements," Lavrov said commenting on remarks by Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko about the "Macron formula" on the settlement in the Donbass region. "That was confirmed by Mr. Minister during our conversation."
"The only thing France would like to see is the acceleration of the implementation of the Minsk Package of Measures," the Russian minister added. "This fully coincides with our approaches."
Lavrov stressed that there are no disagreements with France regarding the basis, on which the settlement should be achieved, and "that it should be done as soon as possible." The Russian minister also expressed the hope that "the contacts President Poroshenko had in Paris and the contacts he will have with [US Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson will help the Ukrainian leaders realize their responsibility and comply with the Minsk agreements."
Lavrov noted that during the talks he showed his French counterpart "citing specific examples how the Ukrainian government is hampering compliance with its obligations, including by showing inability to disengage the manpower and materiel at Stanitsa Luganskaya." "The issue has been discussed for several months now," he added. "The OSCE mission has registered full-fledged week-long periods when the ceasefire was not violated four times. However, the Ukrainian side said every time that it was not sure of that and that the disengagement of forces cannot be carried out."
On June 26, French President Emmanuel Macron had a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Pyotr Poroshenko in Paris, after which the Ukrainian leader pointed to the need to develop new draft decisions on resolving the conflict in the Donbass region within the "Normandy Four" group and proposed to call them "the Macron formula." However, the French leader reiterated his country’s commitment to the Minsk process speaking at the same news conference.