Brussels, 09/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Union could help in East Ukraine by participating in the demining process, said High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini during her visit to Kiev on Monday 9 November.
Mogherini was visiting Kiev for the second time in a year in order to meet the main leaders of the government. Along with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, she spoke about the implementation of the Minsk agreements - both on the security and political level. At the end of this meeting, she reported that “we shared the assessment of the fact that we are today in a much better position than was the case months ago, with the ceasefire finally in place and the withdrawal of weapons started”.
As regards the issues on which “immediate and consistent progress is needed”, she spoke of the discussions on the “modalities” of the future local elections in the areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists, the problem of the lack of unrestricted access to the whole territory for the OSCE observers and humanitarian organisations, and also Kiev's need to move forward on the reform path - especially on the fight against corruption.
It was also on an optimistic note that the Normandy-format meeting of the French, German, Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers finished in Berlin on Friday 6 November. The ministers hailed the general calm that is holding in the conflict in East Ukraine, despite sporadic clashes, and spoke of the possibility of “finalising” the heavy weapons withdrawal and reaching an agreement on demining in the coming weeks.
According to the spokesperson for France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, “progress was noted” at all levels. “The withdrawal of light weapons is progressing (and) the fact that the ceasefire is being maintained enables activities to be resumed in Donbass”, the French side said at the end of the meeting. A similar tone was used by Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who spoke in particular about a withdrawal of heavy weapons (with a calibre over 100mm) that could be completed by the end of November or early December. At the same time, the issue of mines that have been laid on both sides of the front line was addressed, and the ministers agreed that an agreement will be negotiated before the end of November. This issue was also addressed by Mogherini in Kiev, who said that she had talked with Poroshenko about “very concrete and practical work that we can do together - for example, the European Union can work on something crucial like demining some areas”.
Both the government of Kiev and the pro-Russian separatists have recently announced completing the final stage of the withdrawal of weapons of under 100mm in a 15 km zone from the contact line. Doubt nevertheless persists, as shown by the words of Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin reported by French news agency AFP at the end of the meeting in Berlin, when Klimkin accused the separatists of not respecting their commitment by hiding heavy weapons “in mines and factories”.
While the four Normandy-format foreign ministers hailed the fact that the ceasefire is being respected overall, the situation nevertheless remains tense, as the daily reports of the OSCE observation mission illustrate. On Saturday 7 November alone, the observers noted 52 explosions around the city of Donetsk and 12 explosions in the oblast of Luhansk. In the town of Krasnohorivka (oblast of Donetsk), the observers “conducted a crater analysis and assessed that it had been caused by an 82mm mortar and was likely fired from the east”, the OSCE stated - although this type of weapon is supposed to have been completely withdrawn from the front line.
This ministerial meeting could be the prelude to a meeting, also in Normandy-format, of heads or state or government, who “are soon expected to review” the situation in East Ukraine, the French side stated. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)