MOSCOW, September 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and eastern Ukrainian independence fighters should fully observe provisions of the Minsk ceasefire agreement, US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk agreed.
In a telephone conversation late Tuesday, Joe Biden and Arseniy Yatsenyuk agreed that Russia and its "separatist proxies" should do their part in immediately implementing all the provisions of the Minsk agreement, including "the removal of all Russian troops from Ukraine and the creation of a security area in the border regions" of Ukraine and Russia, according to a statement released by Biden's office.
The United States and Ukraine continue accusing Russia of escalating the conflict in Ukraine and of supporting the independence fighters. Moscow denies these accusations.
The vice president congratulated Ukrainian lawmakers and leaders on the ratification of Ukraine's EU Association Agreement and the approval of bills introducing a special self-administration regime in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as granting amnesty for independence supporters who committed administrative or criminal offenses.
The parliaments of Ukraine and the European Union simultaneously ratified the Association Agreement on Tuesday.
The Verkhovna Rada approved the bill by 355 lawmakers with the required minimum of 226 "yes" votes. The Ukrainian president signed the ratification deal immediately after and told the government to prepare the bill for the agreement's implementation by Wednesday.
The political provisions of the agreement were signed in March, after Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president at the time, was ousted and an interim government came to power. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the economic part of the agreement in June.
On September 5, the Contact Group on Ukraine, comprising of the representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), held a meeting in Minsk, which resulted in a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine. Subsequently, independence forces and the Ukrainian government accused each other of violating the agreement.
