Contents tagged with Minsk agreements

  • Donetsk to hold Victory Day military parade on May 9th

    The leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said that this time more military equipment will take part in the parade.

    On Wednesday, RIA Novosti quoted Zakharchenko as saying that the parade on the Victory Day of the Great Patriotic War will be held in Donetsk and restored military vehicles from the 1940s will participate. "This will be the usual parade of our technology... We have restored several pieces of equipment that participated in the liberation of our …

  • Deputy Secretary General of NATO: the implementation of the Minsk agreements is disappointing, but not disastrous

    The progress on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements is disappointing, but not disastrous and pressure on Russia needs to be maintained, said the Deputy Secretary General of NATO, Oleksandr Vershbow, on the TV program TSN Tyzhden, on Sunday, April 17, 2016.

    "I don't agree that the Minsk process is already a failure. Clearly, the international pressure, including the sanctions, need to continue. Russia needs to understand that complying with only half of the measures will not satisfy the …

  • Zakharova: Russia is not subject to the Minsk Agreements, so it is not obligated to release Savchenko

    The Russian Foreign Ministry claims that Russia is not a party to the Minsk Agreements, and therefore it does not understand the claims concerning the case of the Ukrainian Nadiya Savchenko, as stated by the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

    "Russia is not a party to the Minsk Agreements. These agreements only concern two sides that are part of the conflict," she said.

    "We have the responsibility to influence the parties of the conflict exactly the same way as France or …

  • Kiev accuses separatists of blocking the exchange of prisoners

    During the meeting of the humanitarian subgroup of Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk on Wednesday, March 23rd, representatives of the self-proclaimed republics of the Donbas were "debating absolutely destructively," said a spokeswoman for Ukraine, MP Iryna Herashchenko, as reported by Deutsche Welle. "They, yet again, artificially understate the number of hostages on their territories. We are painstakingly collecting information about the locations of prisoners, whom neither the mission of the …

  • John Kerry to discuss Syria, Ukraine, and Savchenko during visit to Moscow

    US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, where he plans to discuss the wars in Syria and Ukraine, as well as Nadiya Savchenko, who was found guilty and sentenced to 22 years in prison by a Russian court on Tuesday.

    The State Department also stressed that Kerry intends to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Agreements and the deterioration of the situation in eastern Ukraine.

    Kerry arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, and will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei …

  • Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany: Berlin is too friendly towards Moscow

    The Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, stated that Berlin is "too friendly towards Russia". Melnyk believes that the German government tries to shift the blame to Ukraine for the slow implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

    According to Melnyk, Germany is seeking favors from Russia, Deutsche Welle reported referring to the DPA Agency.

    The Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany believes that Berlin is sending the wrong signals to Moscow. "Moscow perceives these signals of reconciliation …

  • US Senator: We have yet to see Russia's Real Commitment to the Minsk Agreements

    Ben Cardin, a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed concern about the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, which are designed to reduce tensions in eastern Ukraine.  Completed a year ago, the Minsk Agreements represent a package of measures related to security and policy, agreed to by Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia, to resolve the conflict in the Donbas region.

    "Thursday was the first anniversary of the Minsk Agreements.  While all parties expressed the …

  • Merkel plans to extend sanctions against Russia due to non-compliance with Minsk Agreements

    A joint press conference was held on Monday in Berlin with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, and the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel in which Merkel stated that the sanctions against Russia will be extended due to the non-implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

    “We have to extend sanctions against Russia as we take into consideration the fact that the Minsk Agreements have still not been put into effect.  The implementation of these agreements should be a precondition for …

  • Pro-Russian separatists attack Ukrainian Forces 37 times

    On the 23rd of January, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine violated the ceasefire agreement 37 times. The Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported that weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements were observed in the cities of Donetsk and Bulavinskoye.

    Information about the presence of weaponry–tanks, self-propelled guns (SPG) and 122-mm Grad rocket launchers-was provided by representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

    Ukrainian …

  • John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov meet in Zurich

    The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, and the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, met in the Swiss city of Zurich for the first bilateral negotiations of the year. The meeting was a prelude to the Syrian negotiations to be held in Geneva on January 25th.

    Earlier, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that Lavrov and Kerry would also discuss the situation in Ukraine and the implementation of the Minsk Agreements in eastern Ukraine. The issues regarding …