About face to save face: Poroshenko says there is no alternative to complete fulfillment of Minsk agreements

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© Mikhail Palinchak/Ukrainian presidential press service/TASS

    
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday there is no alternative to complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements.

"Today, there is no alternative to complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements - and this is a clear position coordinated with the United States and with our Normandy format partners - Germany and France," Poroshenko said at a meeting of the National Reform Council.

Commenting on the results of talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, and on his meetings with European leaders, Poroshenko said, "Ukraine has reliable partners in the person of the European Union and the United States."

According to the Ukrainian president, the situation in Ukraine tops the United States' foreign policy agenda. He hailed U.S.' diplomatic efforts in bilateral dialogue with Russia to ensure complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements.

Ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is one of the key provisions of the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian settlement. Other provisions include heavy weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbass and a constitutional reform in Ukraine.

The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after 14-hour negotiations between the leaders of Normandy Four (together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko) in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. Concurrently, Minsk hosted a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement.

The Ukrainian troops and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other provisions of the Minsk agreements.

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