The United States has called on Russia to implement its commitments within the Minsk Agreements toward Donbas settlement, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said, addressing the OSCE Ministerial Council via Zoom on December 3.
"The most egregious violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity within the OSCE area remains Russia’s continued aggression in eastern Ukraine and occupation of Crimea," said Biegun, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
"Russia's actions in Ukraine and elsewhere – its flagrant disregard for international law and for the OSCE's foundational principles – have caused a broad deterioration of the European security environment," the official stressed.
He has noted that "Ukraine must remain at the top of our agenda."
"It is unacceptable that the Special Monitoring Mission faces daily harassment and restrictions, largely in Russia-controlled areas," Biegun said." Nobody is deceived by Moscow's insistence that Ukraine is responsible for the conflict on its territory. "
"The United States calls on Russia to implement its Minsk commitments," the deputy secretary of state said.
"We will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea," he concluded, noting that "Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians, and others opposed to the occupation face cruel repression" on the peninsula.
Read alsoRussia's envoy to UN admits Donbas war not "Ukraine's internal conflict"Minsk Agreements: Latest
- On July 22, participants in the Trilateral Contact Group (Ukraine, OSCE, and Russia) on Donbas settlement agreed on a complete and comprehensive ceasefire along the contact line from July 27.
- On September 6, the invaders violated the ceasefire by shelling Ukrainian positions. A Ukrainian soldier was killed, another was wounded. More violations on the part of the Russian proxy forces have been committed since.
- Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov is convinced that Minsk has ceased to be a platform where peace could be achieved.
- Head of the Ukrainian delegation to the TCG Leonid Kravchuk noted the need to revise the sequence of steps in the Package of Measures (Minsk Agreements of 2015).
