Interfax: Kyiv supports ceasefire in Donbas only if some conditions met – Ukrainian foreign minister

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KYIV. Aug 18 (Interfax) – Ensuring the impenetrability of the border with Russia is one of conditions for achieving a bilateral ceasefire in south-eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said.

“We said yesterday in Berlin that everyone should do everything that depends on them in order to block the border, to stop gunfire on our territory and so that armed people, arms and heavy weapons do not come to us across the border with Russia,” Klimkin told Interfax on Monday when commenting on the meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, held in Berlin on August 17.

According to Klimkin, Ukraine was committed to a bilateral ceasefire.

“But we need three things so that this ceasefire occurs and not a game around this absolutely vital question: the border must be completely safe; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) must monitor the ceasefire everywhere, including along the border; and all hostages must be released, and no one should even try to take new hostages,” the Ukrainian foreign minister said.

Ukraine does not pose artificial demands, Klimkin said.

“We want the ceasefire to be truly bilateral and effective. And this is only possible if Russia takes decisive and effective steps towards de-escalation,” Klimkin said.

While Kyiv bets on a forceful resolution to the conflict in south-eastern Ukraine, international efforts, similar to the meeting held on August 17, will not succeed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Monday.

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