Ukrainian President speaks about Merkel and Macron’s pressure on Putin
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the leaders of the Normandy Four countries – himself, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron – pressurized Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to establish a truce in the Donbas for Easter. Poroshenko mentioned this during a meeting with inhabitants of Volnovakha, 112 Ukraine reports.
He called the truce as necessary as “air” and said that it is a condition for introducing peacekeepers in the Donbas. The Ukrainian president spoke of the peacekeepers as “blessed envoys of God”. He believes that the result of their activity must be the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory back to their homeland.
“Our overall task is to restore Volnovakha and bring peace. That’s why in our negotiations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and I approached Putin and pressurized him to sign a statement on a truce which must begin on March 30,” Poroshenko said.
The leaders of the Normandy Four discussed the normalization of the situation in eastern Ukraine during a meeting on March 29. The parties called for a speedy exchange of prisoners between Kyiv and the forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics according to the principle “all for all”. Furthermore, as a result of the negotiations, a decision was made regarding a so-called Easter truce in the contact region. According to the Kremlin’s statements, it was ratified by the trilateral contact group on March 23. In 2018, Orthodox Easter will be observed on April 8.
The ceasefire was scheduled to come into force on the evening of March 30. In spite of this, 112 Ukraine reported that the positions of the Ukrainian military were shelled on that day by the militia. According to Kyiv’s military, fire was opened 32 times on March 30 (one Ukrainian soldier was killed and four were wounded), and on March 31, Ukraine documented 11 shots. The DPR and LPR in turn accused the Ukrainian military of firing shots.