Kremlin: Kiev's Failure to Fulfill Minsk Deal Derails Settlement in Ukraine

Further steps toward Ukrainian crisis settlement are impossible until Kiev fulfills its obligations under the Minsk agreements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Normandy format talks on Ukrainian reconciliation between the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine were held in Paris on Thursday but failed to bring any substantial results.

"We regret to state that the Ukrainian side is still not implementing the Minsk agreements. This is the main obstacle to the process of political settlement," Peskov told reporters.

The spokesman added that there were individual violations of the ceasefire in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region and each of them should be investigated separately.

"But it is impossible to take further steps unless Ukraine implements what is written in the Minsk agreements. Here we can see that there have been no steps [taken by Kiev]," he stressed.

Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence supporters in Ukraine’s east in April 2014. The confrontation has claimed over 9,000 lives, according to UN estimates.

In February 2015, the Normandy Four worked out a ceasefire deal in Minsk later signed by Kiev and Donbass self-defense forces. Despite the fact that the agreement was reached over a year ago, both sides have repeatedly reported violations of the deal.