Ministers agree on weapons withdrawal

BERLIN – Foreign affairs ministers from Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine have agreed to push ahead with the withdrawal of weapons from the front line in eastern Ukraine. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, Sergei Lavrov and Pavlo Klimkin met for about five hours in Berlin late on April 13 for talks to assess the implementation of a ceasefire. Speaking to reporters after the talks early on April 14, Mr. Steinmeier said the ministers agreed to continue with the withdrawal of heavy weapons and to include weapons below 100 mm caliber, mortars, armored vehicles and tanks in the withdrawal. He said they also agreed to establish four working groups to address security issues, the process for holding local elections in rebel-held areas, the exchange of prisoners of war, and improvement of the economic situation in Ukraine’s east. Under the ceasefire agreement brokered by the German and French leaders in the Belarusian capital of Minsk in February, fighting was supposed to stop and heavy weapons bigger than 100 mm caliber were to be pulled back from the front lines. The German, French, Russian, and Ukrainian foreign ministers were also all willing to support the OSCE, which is monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal, with money and personnel over the coming weeks. Mr. Steinmeier admitted the talks had been “very long, very intensive, and at times very contentious” given the tense situation on the ground. But he said all participants agreed there was no alternative to the Minsk agreement. “We need to ensure that the ceasefire is adhered to far more strongly as fully as possible,” Mr. Steinmeier said. In a joint statement, the four ministers expressed “grave concern at the recent outbreak of fights over the last weekend.” This included the use of heavy weapons around the village of Shyrokyne, on the outskirts of the port city of Mariupol and at Donetsk airport. The Ukrainian military said one of its servicemen was killed and six others wounded on April 13. (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, the Associated Press and Deutsche Presse-Agentur)