TASS /. Russia asks German Chancellor Angela Merkel, before her visit to Kiev, to exert influence on the Ukrainian authorities to push them to respect their commitments, the Russian president said on Friday after talks with Merkel.
“It seems that the Ukrainian leadership has decided to abandon the idea of a peaceful settlement of the situation. In this context, we once again ask the Chancellor, in view of her next visit to Kiev, to exert influence on the Ukrainian side in terms of the implementation of its commitments, ”he said.
The Russian president recalled that more than 1,000 violations of the ceasefire had been reported in Donbass since the beginning of August. “Populated communities in Donbass are bombarded every day,” he said. “We can only be worried that Ukraine has adopted a series of laws and normative acts, which go against the Minsk agreements,” he said.
He congratulated Merkel for having done a lot in the interest of settling the Ukrainian crisis, being one of the initiators of the Norman format. “Together we have tried to find possibilities to restore peace in Donbass. Unfortunately, this has not yet been achieved,” Putin said.
“Today, the Russian and German sides expressed their deep concern over the growing tensions along the line of contact. We have discussed this matter and I hope that this discussion will continue in the near future,” a- he added.