Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei has said he does not think that the crisis in the east of Ukraine may be settled soon.
“As far as we understand it, the prospect for resolving the crisis in the east of Ukraine in the near future is unfortunately absent,” Makei was quoted by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry’s press service on July 25 as saying after a meeting with Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec.
In order to secure a solution to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, all sides need to strictly abide by the Minsk agreements, he said.
“This is not happening today. If we see that it is not happening, it means that possibly we need to think about arranging another meeting, maybe in the same ‘Normandy format’ but maybe with the participation of other players, a meeting that would help update these agreements, which were signed in 2015, and would help determine a precise mechanism to monitor compliance with these accords. In this case, the progress achieved in settling the situation in the east of Ukraine would be more significant,” the Belarusian minister said.
“I would like to repeat that it could be a meeting in the ‘Normandy format’ to which some additional players could be invited, but not a meeting between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,” he said.
During his recent visit to Kyiv, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko discussed these issues with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Makei said.
“Belarus is interested in seeing the soonest possible end to the crisis in this country which is our neighbour, our southern neighbour,” he said.
