"The situation is extremely unstable. This is especially connected with the situation around Debaltseve," she said.
"From the very beginning of this situation it was clear that we had to work a lot. And I've always said that there is no guarantee that our efforts will be successful. It will be an extremely hard path," Merkel said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine’s military on Monday said that Russian-backed militants have fired 112 times on the positions of the Ukrainian armed forces, including 88 times on Debaltseve and surrounding villages, in the time since a ceasefire was supposed to have come into effect in Ukraine on Sunday.
In addition, it was also reported that five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another 22 wounded near Mariupol since the beginning of the ceasefire.
