BERLIN (Sputnik) — Berlin hopes that the new ceasefire agreement in Ukraine's eastern Donbass region will work effectively and be "more than a verbal statement," German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Thursday in a statement, published on the ministry's website.
"Only yesterday the parties in the conflict agreed on a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the beginning of the academic year. We welcome it. My hopes for the people there are that this ceasefire will differ from the previous ones and will be something more than a verbal statement, which shortly thereafter becomes invalid. People in Ukraine's east, after all, need real progress in the implementation of the Minsk Agreements," the statement on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence read.
The statement stressed that Germany always supported Ukraine and noted that the country made a significant progress in the implementation of reforms.
The previous ceasefire was negotiated on June 21 by a trilateral contact group, composed of Russian, Ukrainian and OSCE mediators. The sides agreed to impose a ceasefire in Ukraine's eastern regions during the summer harvest, which would last from June 24 to August 31. However, the ceasefire failed to hold, with both sides of the conflict continuing to blame each other over violations.