Moscow urges Europe to get Ukraine to comply with truce

Poroshenko will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande in Berlin on Monday in a bid to end a new wave of violence in east Ukraine between Russian-backed rebels and Ukraine’s armed forces.

Most of the road is now overseen by pro-Kiev units. The February agreement signed between the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists resulted in large amounts of tanks, anti-aircraft guns and other heavy equipment being moved back from the frontlines, but it hasn’t stopped the guns from firing.

“The situation is still most tense in the area of the militant-controlled city of Donetsk“, the military’s so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) said on Facebook, according to a translation by Ukraine’s Unian news agency.

Washington and Moscow are still deadlocked over the conflict in Ukraine but did cooperate in helping to hammer out a deal over Iran’s nuclear deal in July.

But many Jews in Crimea itself, including Reform and Orthodox rabbis and community leaders, say they feel safer under the sovereignty of Russian Federation under Putin, who is widely credited for tough action on anti-Semitism and an attentive approach to the needs of local Jews.

Russian Federation proposed a common economic space with Ukraine before the revolution, while huge financial resources were needed to adapt to the EU’s requirements, Azarov said. In fact, Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine past year has given the memorabilia makers even more material to glorify a president whose image as a champion of Russian national interests in a hostile world is barely challenged in his own country.

“It says that France and Germany are in the same boat as we are”.

“It is clear that there can only be lasting, sustainable, stable security with Russian Federation and not against Russian Federation“, German foreign ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said on Friday. Poroshenko has nothing else to discuss with Merkel and Hollande.

Azarov, who’s wanted on corruption charges by the authorities in Kiev and is under U.S. and European Union sanctions, was premier when Ukraine rejected an EU association agreement in 2013 in favor of closer links with Russian Federation, prompting months of anti-government protests. The negotiations are reported to be held on Poroshenko’s initiative.

“For us, the need to put additional pressure on Kiev is obvious”, said Lavrov.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Hennadii Nadolenko, announced the plans for the visits in an op-ed published this week ahead of Ukraine’s 24th independence day, on August. 24.