The elections in Donbas cannot be carried out without a cease-fire, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has said.
Speaking to journalists in Kyiv on Tuesday he said the U.S. supports the efforts of Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko in promotion of laws that regulate elections in these regions.
However, the elections cannot be held in compliance with the OSCE standards until the violence in Donbas stops, the ambassador said.
One of the first clauses of the Minsk agreements provides for the complete cease-fire, however, the events of recent days show that Russian-backed groups do not observe this clause of the Minsk agreements, Pyatt said.
In his words, the U.S. is concerned over the recent escalation of violence in Ukraine’s east, in particular the downing of the OSCE’s unmanned aerial vehicle, as well as the OSCE’s report that the separatists are moving along the contact line in columns in order to carry out raids and attacks.
The ambassador recalled that U.S. President Barack Obama said at the G7 summit that the violence must be stopped.
It is in Russia’s power to make this happen, Pyatt added.
