Attempts are being made to discredit German Chancellor Angela Merkel because of her support for Ukraine, but Kyiv is not throwing into question the consistent position of Germany, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said.
“The news of negotiations between Germany and Russia on Ukraine looks like a failed attempt by re-constructors of history to remind the world of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact,” Klimkin told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.
In his opinion, the world has changed. “Germany has changed. Mrs. Merkel understands as nobody else that we live in the 21st, not the 20th century. And decisions must correspond to their time, rather than drag the world into the past,” he said.
Klimkin said that despite all rumors and speculation, Germany had consistently supported Ukraine in its fight against terrorism in the east of the country.
“It is Berlin that has finally played a key role in ensuring that Europe make an unprecedented step – form a common position with regard to Russia and confirm Euro-Atlantic unity,” he said.
“It is Germany that has demonstrated that it lives by the principles of the 21st century. Time will tell whether they are observed by some other countries,” he added.
Earlier, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported, citing unnamed sources, that Germany and Russia had been working on a secret plan to stabilize Ukraine’s borders and strengthen the country’s economy.
To do so, Russia, according to the newspaper, should stop military and financial assistance to illegal armed groups in eastern Ukraine, as well as to sign a new gas agreement with Kyiv. The international community, in turn, would recognize the independence of Crimea and its incorporation into Russia. According to the newspaper, the plan also foresees that the Ukrainian president would agree not to apply to join NATO, whereas Russia would not seek to block or interfere with Ukraine’s new trade relations with the European Union envisaged by the Association Agreement.
Negotiations allegedly initiated by the German side were interrupted because of the Malaysian Boeing crash in Ukraine, the newspaper wrote.
The German government later denied reports that the German and Russian authorities had allegedly been working on a secret plan to stabilize the situation in Ukraine.
