Lthe Kremlin reported on Wednesday, February 9, the first “positive signals”, following the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Ukraine, regarding the settlement of the conflict between Kiev and pro-Russian separatists, a process paralyzed for years. “There have been positive signals regarding Ukraine’s decision to act only on the basis of the Minsk agreements, this is a plus,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“But we have not heard President (Ukrainian Volodymyr) Zelensky say that he is ready to deal with it quickly,” he said. Moscow accuses Ukraine of refusing to implement the 2015 Minsk Accords, which are meant to bring an end to the Donbass war in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 13,000 people in eight years, according to the UN. Despite its denials, Russia is widely seen as instigating the conflict by supporting the separatists militarily and politically.
Vladimir Putin has promised he will not be “behind the escalation”
Dmitry Peskov was reacting to the words of President Zelensky, who received his French counterpart the day before. The visit followed talks on Monday between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin on the Russia-West crisis over Ukraine and the war in the east of the country. This conflict is fueling the current Russian-Western tensions and the risk of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, with tens of thousands of Russian troops encamped on the Russian-Ukrainian border.
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The political advisers of the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany are due to meet in Berlin on Thursday to try to find ways to revive the peace process in Donbass and to discuss the holding of a possible summit of the leaders of the four countries. After meeting with Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron assured from Ukraine that the Russian president had promised not to be “at the origin of the escalation”.
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