MINSK (Sputnik) — In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, however sporadic shelling has continued in Ukraine despite the deal.
"Unfortunately, there is no great reason for optimism in terms of moving forward in the implementation of the Minsk agreements yet,” Karasin told reporters.
He noted that the participants of the upcoming meeting of the contact group on Ukraine settlement will discuss the same political, security, and humanitarian and socio-economic issues, as before.
“So far, we have every reason to believe that Kiev representatives, the Kiev government, mostly rely on actively and creatively manipulating their partners from Germany and France in the framework of the Normandy Format, and the US representatives in the framework of the direct contacts between Kiev and Washington," Karasin said.
The deputy minister noted, however, that Moscow welcomes the US and EU willingness to enhance cooperation with Kiev on the implementation of the Minsk deal.
“We hope, nonetheless, that we will be able to move forward, on the precondition that Kiev feels responsible for actively participating in this process [deal implementation] and for establishing a dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk representatives,” Karasin added.
Kiev launched a military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
