BERLIN, September 22. /TASS/. Germany should undertake efforts to make the Ukrainian authorities start fulfilling their obligations to the Minsk agreements (‘Minsk-2’) on settling the country’s conflict, Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the Russian broadcaster NTV after his talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

"It would be fair to say that Ukraine has to fulfill its obligations, too - we need to work on that as well," he said. According to Gabriel, in order to stabilize the situation, it is necessary that the agreements on withdrawing the warring sides’ forces from the line of contact are implemented and "the OSCE takes control of the situation." On the whole, the German vice chancellor was confident that "both sides should move towards each other."

Gabriel confirmed once again that together with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, he had been insisting on the step-by-step removal of the sanctions imposed on Russia, in response to the progress made in implementing the Minsk agreements. "But the main condition is that the progress is actually observed," the German vice chancellor concluded.