Ukraine Ceasefire Fails Due to Lack of Political Will - German Foreign Ministry

According to the German Foreign Ministry, the Eastern Ukrainian ceasefire regime has failed.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — The ceasefire regime introduced in eastern Ukraine on June 24 has failed largely because the parties to the conflict have no political will to fulfill their commitments, the German Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"The agreed truce is not being maintained. We continue to observe numerous instances of the use of weapons along the line of contact," the ministry said in a statement.

"After a brief period of the reduction of hostilities, it should be noted that, apparently, the parties to the conflict lack the will for long-term ceasefire," the statement said.

According to the statement, further escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine threatens to halt the political process in the framework of the Minsk peace accords.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the West-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Kiev has since been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.