Poroshenko and Merkel discuss possible pressure on Russia to fulfill Minsk agreements
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel had discussed a possible scenario of putting pressure on Russia to fulfill its part of the Minsk agreements, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
“A significant portion of time was devoted to the coordination of actions to implement the Minsk agreements. It was established that Russia is not fulfilling the Minsk agreements, and we have to develop a scenario which would motivate Russia to sit at the negotiation table and do what it has promised, firstly regarding the security aspect,” Poroshenko said on Saturday evening in Berlin.
According to the president, everything must be done in order to establish peace in the Ukrainian land, for the occupation to end, and in this regard Ukraine has Germany’s complete support.
“Furthermore, we agreed that if the Minsk agreements are not fulfilled, the EU sanctions are highly likely to continue. It is very important that this meeting took place the evening before the ‘Big Seven’ conference, where in Sicily the matter of Ukraine will be very high on the agenda, and this matter will also be present at the G20 conference,” P. Poroshenko stated.
The parties also discussed bilateral cooperation with Germany, including the matter of aid in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“We have agreed on financial support of reforms, and the significant success of the Ukrainian team in the implementation of reforms has been established,” the Ukrainian president stated.