22 July 2016, 21:06 GMT
KIEV (Sputnik) — Ayrault and Steinmeier are visiting Ukraine on September 14-15. Earlier in the day, the German Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Sawsan Chebli, said that Steinmeier had plans to travel to the town of Kramatorsk, located on the territory controlled by Kiev.
"Tomorrow we will continue our [diplomatic] efforts not in Kiev, but in Donbas," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with French and German foreign ministers in Kiev.
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities that came to power as a result of a coup. The years-long fighting has resulted in the destruction of important infrastructure and shortages of food, drinking water and electricity in Donbas.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
