EU, G7 ministers express concern over increase of ceasefire violations in Ukraine

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BRUSSELS, Feb 19: The European Union and the G7 foreign ministers Saturday expressed concern over the increase in ceasefire violations along the line of contact in Ukraine in recent days. “We condemn the use of heavy weaponry and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas.. We also condemn that the Russian Federation continues to hand out Russian passports to the inhabitants of the non-government controlled areas of Ukraine. This clearly runs counter to the spirit of the Minsk agreements,” said the EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US in a joint statement. “We are particularly worried by measures taken by the self-proclaimed “People’s Republics” which must be seen as laying the ground for military escalation. We are concerned that staged incidents could be used as a pretext for possible military escalation,” it said.

The statement called on Russia to use its influence “over the self-proclaimed republics to exercise restraint and de-escalate”. “We call on Russia to choose the path of diplomacy, to de-escalate tensions, to substantively withdraw military forces from the proximity of Ukraine’s borders and to fully abide by international commitments including on risk reduction and transparency of military activities,” it said. “We expect Russia to implement the announced reduction of its military activities along Ukraine’s borders. We have seen no evidence of this reduction. We will judge Russia by its deeds,” it added.(KUNA)

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