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Russia urges EU to implement existing deal on Ukraine

Xinhua, April 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

The European Union (EU) should focus on implementing agreements on the Ukraine crisis that have already been reached rather than inventing new ones, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

"The main task of us, including the EU and all European institutions, is to comprehensively implement the Minsk agreements of Feb. 12, but not to divert the attention by some new initiatives," Lavrov said after a meeting with his Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders.

He noted that the peace process in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region would never end if new moves were constantly suggested.

Lavrov said Kiev's enactment of a law about the "special status" of Donbass violated the accord, which, in his words, "has jeopardized the peace talks with Lugansk and Donetsk pro-independence leaders."

While Moscow has been trying to persuade the insurgents not to withdraw from the Minsk deal, Europe must influence Kiev in the similar way, he added.

Meanwhile, Lavrov urged the Council of Europe to pay attention to the humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine as well as to the human rights record there.

Earlier in the day, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin confirmed that Lavrov will attend the Normandy Quartet ministerial meeting in Berlin on Monday to discuss the implementation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement. Endi