NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has assured that the Alliance will continue to support Ukraine, and called on Russia to fulfill the Minsk agreements aimed at resolving the situation in the east of Ukraine, according to an UNIAN correspondent in Brussels.
Speaking at a press conference on the eve of the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Stoltenberg said that he had assured President Poroshenko that NATO would provide ”strong political and strong practical support to Ukraine”.
According to Stoltenberg, practical assistance is provided through trust funds; the Allies are also encouraged to provide support on a bilateral basis, and a comprehensive package of assistance for Ukraine was adopted at the NATO summit in Warsaw.
”Then we support Ukraine by calling on Russia to make sure that the Minsk agreements are fully implemented. And Russia has a great responsibility because Russia continues to support the separatists in Donbas. They [Russia] continue to be present and therefore they have a special responsibility to make sure that the Minsk agreements are fully implemented,” Jens Stoltenberg said.
In this regard, he noted that the ceasefire must be respected, all weapons should be withdrawn, and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission should have full access for monitoring.
According to Stoltenberg, NATO welcomes the adoption of a roadmap for the implementation of the Minsk agreements during recent talks in the Normandy format.
”I can assure you that we will continue to call on Russia to seek peaceful negotiated solution based on the Minsk agreements and we will continue to support Ukraine and support the Minsk agreement.”
As UNIAN reported earlier, on October 19 talks were held in Berlin between President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At a briefing following the talks, Poroshenko said that the Normandy Four leaders had approved French and German proposals for the base of the roadmap for the implementation of Minsk agreements.
Also, the Ukrainian president said that Russia supported the need for the deployment of an armed OSCE police mission in Donbas.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in an interview with the Ukrainian TV channels Sunday called the conditions required to hold local elections in Donbas region, among them the implementation of the security component of Minsk agreements and the adoption of a relevant law by the Verkhovna Rada.
