Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained about the lack of progress in the Ukraine conflict after an international video conference. The ceasefire is still not being observed, Lavrov said in Moscow today. He urged the Ukrainian government, but also the separatist leaders, to make more efforts to resolve the conflict.
Above all, the Ukrainian blockade of the Luhansk and Donetsk areas must be ended. Ukraine should also pay their pensions to people in Donbass, Lavrov said. The Russian chief diplomat spoke with his colleagues from Germany, France and Ukraine after the video conference. Lavrov demanded that more be done to improve the humanitarian situation. He also denied allegations that observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were being prevented from accessing the war zone. „That was sucked out of your fingers,“ he said.
Ministers discussed the stalled implementation of the decisions taken at the Normandy summit in Paris in early December. So far, two arrangements for prisoner exchanges between Kiev and the breakaway areas of Donetsk and Luhansk have been carried out under the agreements. The agreement also included a new ceasefire and the establishment of three new front sections for a troop withdrawal.
