Donbass Economic Blockade Raises Concerns Amid Normandy 4 FMs, Lavrov Says

BERLIN (Sputnik) – The Normandy Four ministers are concerned by Kiev's continuing economic blockade of southeastern Ukraine (Donbas), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his German, French and Ukrainian counterparts in Berlin.

"It is wrong and harmful that the economic blockade of Donbas continues. Social benefits and pensions are not being paid. Special attention will be paid to this [issue] in the statement made on behalf of the Normandy Quartet at the ministerial level today," Lavrov told journalists after the Monday meeting.

Ukraine's southeast is currently facing a humanitarian crisis as a result of a military operation launched by Kiev authorities in April 2014, in response to local residents' refusal to recognize the new coup-installed government.

In November, 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree imposing an economic blockade on Donbas and withdrawing all state-funded health, educational and social protection organizations from the region.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR) have repeatedly urged Kiev to remove the economic restrictions.

In February, following talks between Normandy Quartet leaders in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, Kiev and DPR and LPR representatives agreed to a ceasefire and a number of measures aimed at de-escalating the crisis in southeastern Ukraine, including constitutional changes granting Donbas more autonomy.

Meanwhile Russia has been sending humanitarian aid convoys to Donetsk and Luhansk since August, 2014, in order to help local residents survive. So far, Russia has sent over 25,000 metric tons of aid to Donbas.