Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany: Berlin is too friendly towards Moscow Saturday, March 12, 2016 11:35:00 AM

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 as a weakness. The Kremlin does not see it as a compromise or a negotiating tactic," the diplomat said.

For Putin, now it is more important to return to the "Big Eight" than to lift the sanctions against Russia, the diplomat said.

The diplomat explained that the Germans and the French accuse the weak side, i.e. Ukraine, of failing to implement the Minsk Agreements.

"At the moment there is a competition: who is the one that did not fulfill their obligations? And now we are the ones who failed, not the Russians. This is what Ukrainians find unfair," the Ambassador added.

Melnyk has evaluated that the chances of success of the Minsk Agreements is higher than 50 percent. According to him, despite the government crisis, MPs may adopt the law on elections, and these elections could be held in the Donbas region as early as the beginning of June.

He believes that the OSCE may play a special role as a guarantor of security in these elections. However, the Ukrainian Ambassador expressed doubts that Germany, as the Chairman of the OSCE, really wants to have this responsibility.

Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin stated that Berlin has to put pressure on Russia to ensure security during the elections, something that the Ukrainian police would not be capable of at this point, in his opinion.

In February, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine suggested that the elections in the Donbas can be held only after Ukraine regains complete control over its borders. This was one of the key points in the Minsk Agreements, along with a ceasefire and a complete withdrawal of weapons fron the contact line.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, due to the political crisis in Kiev and the unwillingness of Moscow to stop the violence, it may be the collapse of the Minsk Agreements that leads to the emergence of a new frozen conflict in the heart of Europe.





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