REUTERS
Security and Defense Committee members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have urged Russia to stop testing the West's reactions to escalation in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, and to go on implementing the Minsk agreements.
"A majority were convinced that Russia is 'testing the ground' against the backdrop of new U.S. administration and called on Russia to implement the Minsk agreements. MEPs also reiterated that EU sanctions are linked to the implementation of the Minsk agreements and should therefore be maintained," the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine said in a statement on Facebook after debates by Security and Defense Subcommittee MEPs on Monday, February 6.
Some MEPs called on the EU to be more proactive and to start discussing the possibility of deploying an EU Common Security and Defense Policy mission as well as delivering on its promises to grant Ukrainian citizens visa-free access without further delays, since Ukraine has met all of 144 visa liberalization benchmarks.
What is more, the Delegation said, a majority of Security and Defense Committee MEPs also backed a call to debate the situation in eastern Ukraine at Parliament's next plenary session in Strasbourg and to vote a resolution.
Read alsoPoroshenko urges European Parliament to support UkraineThe Ukrainian side at the debates was represented by Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.
She listed some actions to de-escalate the conflict – maintaining a durable ceasefire, withdrawing Russian troops from eastern Ukraine and ensuring that the OSCE could effectively monitor the 409 km Ukraine/Russian border, which currently is out of Ukrainian control, so as to halt the flow of ammunition, troops and mercenaries into eastern Ukraine.