BERLIN, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin asked the European Union and NATO for military aid in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio on Sunday.
"We need military aid. Because if such aid comes, it will make it easier for our subdivisions to work on the ground," he said, adding that he called on the EU and NATO to help Ukraine.
Klimkin said the problem lays in the militia in southeastern Ukraine who refused to enter a dialogue with Ukrainian servicemen.
"There is a territorial contact group between Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE. But it is difficult to contact the representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk even within its framework," the minister said, adding he hoped the September NATO summit would bring about a decision on the political support to Ukraine, which needs "more aid to reforms and armed forces."
Klimkin specifically named Germany and its Chancellor Angela Merkel as the forces that could contribute to defuse the conflict.
"The Chancellor is doing an unbelievable great deal. She is one of the most important leaders of this process. She has done a lot for the European Union to become univocal. And for that, we are incredibly grateful. But it goes without saying that more needs to be done for peace to come to Donetsk and Luhansk," Klimkin said.
Since mid-April, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the southeastern regions of Ukraine that had refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government after the February coup.
Since the start of the operation, nearly 1,400 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded in the region, including about 2,600 civilians and 29 children, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At least 117,000 people have been forcibly displaced.
Russia has repeatedly condemned Kiev’s actions and urged for peaceful dialogue with representatives of Ukraine’s southeastern regions.
