Donbass Talks, Dialogue With Russia Key to Prosperous Ukraine – Italian FM

There is no alternative to a negotiated settlement of the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said when meeting on Tuesday with his Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin in Rome.

Paolo Gentiloni reiterated his full support for the Minsk accords and underscored the need for maintaining a “critical dialogue” with Russia, without which neither peace nor any sustainable development in Ukraine is possible.

Pavlo Klimkin, for his part, briefed his Italian colleague on the results of the work done by OSCE-coordinated working groups focusing on the economic, humanitarian and political future of Donbass.

Paolo Gentiloni stressed the importance of speeding up the structural reforms in Ukraine, which he said would lead the country out of the current economic crisis and contribute to its rapprochement with the EU, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.