You're reading: Merkel wants Ukraine to receive access to border with Russia in Donbas

Ukraine should be given access to the state border in Donbas, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said.

“Ukraine should receive access to the external borders, as well as [achieve] stabilization in Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” Merkel told a joint press conference with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk in Berlin on Oct. 23.

The chancellor also said that Germany would continue to accompany Ukraine in the ‘Normandy format’.