Progress has been made on some contentious issues in the peace process, the foreign ministers of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France said after holding talks in Berlin on Saturday to prepare for a summit in Paris on Oct. 2.
Germany’s top diplomat, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the meeting had been “less confrontational” than previous ones and that the warring sides were now “very close” to an agreement on withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged the West not to lift sanctions on Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict unless the Minsk peace deal is fully implemented.
Yatsenyuk earlier on Saturday told the West that Russia needed to fully respect the peace deal before there could be any talk of easing sanctions.
“If you send mixed signals to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, for example that we contemplate an idea to lift sanctions ... this is the weakness,” Yatsenyuk said at the international Yalta European Strategy conference in Kiev.
“This is the way ... actually to underpin and support Putin in his aggression against Ukraine,” Yatsenyuk said in a speech in English. “Sanctions could be lifted only in one case, if Minsk is fully implemented, if Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea [are] back [in Ukraine].”
By annexing Crimea in March last year and supporting pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, “Russia undermined and violated an international law,” Yatsenyuk said.
“It’s entirely unacceptable when a P5 [permanent UN Security Council] member constantly violates the UN charter,” Yatsenyuk said of Russia.
Kiev and the West accuse Russia of sending regular troops and weapons to aid the separatists in the east, where nearly 8,000 people have died in the conflict since April last year.
Moscow has always denied involvement.
In the conflict zone, a total ceasefire was announced starting Sept. 1, and so far appears to be holding.
“We all agreed that the new ceasefire of Sept. 1 has been respected and now needs to be further consolidated,” Steinmeier said after the talks with his three counterparts.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said differences remained on the controversial issue of holding local elections in east Ukraine’s rebel-run areas, but “the general impression is that these differences can be overcome.”
Under the Minsk peace deal, the separatist regions must conduct local elections by the end of the year.
Yatsenyuk on Saturday stressed that he has always been “skeptical” about the peace deal signed in Belarus in February after it was brokered by France and Germany.
“There is no good solution for Putin, so if he goes and says ‘look we decided to leave Donetsk and Lugansk,’ he is politically dead in Russia,” Yatsenyuk said, referring to the rebel-controlled regions.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS