“European governments must, first of all, become conscious of how vital is to both Russia and the EU to work together in order to assure that Minsk II is implemented as quickly as possible,” Matteo Salvini told Sputnik.
On Monday, the foreign ministers of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the four countries comprising the Normandy Four — convened in Berlin to discuss progress on the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements reached in February.
In an interview with Rossiya Segodnya news agency Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week urged Western leaders to try to persuade Kiev to follow the Minsk II ceasefire agreements.
The mid-February Normandy format meeting in Minsk resulted in the signing of new Minsk agreements after the previous deal reached in September failed.
The February deal includes a ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the line of contact in Donbas, amendments to the Ukrainian constitution and prescribes the full restoration of social and economic systems in the country, including the payment of pensions and other social benefits.
