MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow hopes that the new leadership of European countries, contributing to the resolution of conflict in the eastern Ukraine, will more effectively influence Kiev's implementation of the Minsk agreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.
"Now, of course, the disappointment comes due to the fact that all of this ran into a dead end. Our neighbors [Ukraine] do not want, cannot and will not comply with all of this [Minsk agreements]. We hope that the new leadership of the [European] countries, which is helping to seek ways of full implementation of the Minsk agreements, will now decide upon their approaches and will influence Kiev more effectively than they did until now," Lavrov said addressing the audience at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.
"But with all this rigidity in private conversations, no appropriate tone, no relevant requirements are voiced publicly, because [Europe] took these people under their wing, justified their coming to power, justified the method using which they came to power," Lavrov stressed.
Ukraine launched a military operation in Donbass in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that they viewed as illegitimate. In February 2015, the warring parties to the conflict signed the Minsk peace agreements with Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine — the members of the Normandy Four — helping to negotiate the Donbass ceasefire. It has been, however, repeatedly breached, with the conflicting sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire regime.
