Lavrov: 'No Single Conflict' Can Be Settled Without US

The Russian foreign minister said Washington was indispensable in resolving conflicts in the world, and said its involvement in the Minsk process on Ukraine would be very useful.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — There is no single conflict that could be settled without the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.

"There is virtually no single conflict in which it would be possible to do without the United States," Lavrov said after talks with German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

He added that "any involvement of the United States in further efforts to unconditionally implement the Minsk agreements [on Ukraine] would be very useful".

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, the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.