“It’s a very hopeful sign,” US Senator Jeanne Shaheen told Sputnik of the Minsk talks that concluded with a ceasefire agreement. “If there is a ceasefire, if the rebels appear to be willing to negotiate with the capital, the administration in Kiev, then I think we ought to give them the opportunity to do that.”
The agreement reached on Thursday by the Minsk Contact Group, Ukraine, France, Germany, Russia and representatives from Donetsk and Lughansk, is “positive,” Independent Senator Angus King told Sputnik on Thursday.
Senate Armed Services Democrat Shaheen further commented that the continuing the peace talks, despite the lapse in the September Minsk Accord is a plus.
“I’m pleased that they are talking about a ceasefire and continuing to negotiate all that can be done to make more permanent,” she told Sputnik.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of the Armed Services Committee told Sputnik earlier on Thursday that the willingness of the Contact Group to renew negotiations in light of the collapse of the September 2014 Minsk Protocol and a surge in violence in eastern Ukraine, was the cause of “Ukraine’s dismemberment.”
The Minsk talks concluded on Thursday with a thirteen point agreement signed by the government in Kiev and leaders of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lughansk, and the other Contact Group participants. The agreement calls for a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry on both sides of the conflict, and Ukrainian constitutional reforms.
