Ukraine: Uptick in fighting in Donbas area

Speaking at Berlin’s Tegel airport before flying with Ayrault to Kiev, Steinmeier said, “we need a readiness from the Russian side to implement the Minsk deal… but we also need Ukraine”.

“This causes great concerns in Europe, because Ukraine is facing serious challenges”, Steinmeier said at a joint press conference with the Ukrainian and French foreign ministers in Kiev.

Steinmeier said that reform efforts in Ukraine must not now flag and come to a standstill halfway through.

Yet both he and Ayrault insisted that Ukrainian leaders must put aside their squabbles if they wanted to put the country on the path to sustainable and peaceful growth.

He further warned that “the worst scenario for Ukraine would be for it to stay in midstream, with half of the reforms adopted and a situation without prospects” in the war zone.

“There is still a lot of work on the reform path. For this Ukraine needs a functioning government”, Ayrault said.

German and French Foreign Ministers say the current political situation in Ukraine is concerning to Western countries.

The foreign ministers of Germany and France flew to Kiev on Monday to push Ukraine to move ahead with reforms needed in order to implement the year-old Minsk peace agreement. “We can’t accept that the ceasefire keeps getting broken”.

“We need this progress for the Ukrainian people, but we also need this progress for the credibility of the Minsk process itself”.

“The parties discussed an opportunity of deploying an worldwide mission in (the east) as an important precondition for holding local elections under the Ukrainian legislation and the OSCE principles”, Poroshenko’s official website said.

Kyiv has resisted passing the law, arguing the border must first come under control of the central government or be monitored by an worldwide force.

Germany, France and Russian Federation make up the so-called Normandie Format together with Ukraine.

The foreign ministers of France and Germany are in Ukraine to urge Kyiv to continue on its reformist path.