Basel - Moscow expects that Western countries will be able to persuade the Ukrainian authorities both to observe the ceasefire and implement other achieved agreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.
“It is necessary to make sure that the agreements reached between them [the Ukrainian authorities and the militia] and all other principles agreed upon in Minsk are implemented. We hope that our Western partners, the participants in the former “Geneva format” and the “Normandy format” will also have contacts with the Ukrainian leaders on whom they have a decisive influence and will persuade them to implement all achieved agreements,” Lavrov said at a press conference after a session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Ministerial Council in Basel on Dec. 5.
The Russian foreign minister offered his comments after being asked by Interfax to assess Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s decision to declare a “day of silence” in eastern Ukraine on December 9.
