EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice President of the European Commission Catherine Ashton, has issued a statement in which she calls on all parties to the Geneva agreements (the United States, Russia, Ukraine, the EU) to use all levers of influence on illegal armed groups in east Ukraine and stop violence.
A respective statement by Ashton was released in Brussels on Thursday.
“All parties to the Joint Geneva Statement on Ukraine of April 17
must ensure that its terms are fully implemented, including by using
their leverage on illegal armed groups to stop violence and provocation
and to make them hand in their arms,” she said.
Ashton noted that the latest news from eastern Ukraine, and in
particular the reported kidnappings, torture and killings, including the
cases of Volodymyr Rybak and Pavel Kovelko, was a cause of grave
concern.
“I extend my condolences to their relatives. An independent and
transparent investigation should shed full light on these deaths and
bring the perpetrators to justice,” reads the statement.
Ashton said that all persons still illegally detained by armed groups in eastern Ukraine must be immediately released.
“I call for an end to violence, intimidation and provocative actions
and statements, as agreed in the Joint Geneva Statement,” he said.
