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UN chief calls for using diplomacy to settle problems in Ukraine

Antonio Guterres stressed that the international community should be mobilized

UNITED NATIONS, January 21. /TASS/. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called for using diplomatic means to ease tensions in Ukraine.

"In Ukraine, [it is necessary] to reduce tensions, and I urge that all issues be addressed exclusively through diplomacy," he said on Friday at a General Assembly meeting on priorities of work in 2022.

"I pledge to spare no effort to mobilize the international community - and step up our push for peace, he stressed.

A peace settlement of the conflict in Donbass rests on the Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, that was signed by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, after marathon 16-hour talks between the leaders of the Normandy Four nations, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine. The 13-point document envisages a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and the people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk and the subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of contact. The deal also lays out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including an amnesty, prisoner swaps, the resumption of economic ties, local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

The plan remains unimplemented to this day, largely due to Ukraine’s stance. Kiev keeps on refusing to act on the political items of the agreement.

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