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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in an interview with the Funke media group published on Saturday, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s idea to deploy peacekeepers in the war-torn Donbass region of East Ukraine was interesting but not enough progress to have sanctions removed against individuals and entities of the Russian Federation.
“Substantial progress [in establishing ceasefire] should be made but unfortunately we don’t see it so far,” she said. “I think the Russian President’s proposal to engage the UN forces for protection of the OSCE monitors is an interesting one…I spoke to President Putin a few days ago and said the UN forces should have access in all the places where the OSCE monitors are located…We should work in that direction but these are the buds that don’t give the grounds for easing the sanctions,” reported Russian state news agency TASS.
Pro-Russian Rebels Declare New State Of ‘Little Russia’ In Donbass
When asked about the comments of Christian Lindner, the leader of the Free Democratic Party, who propoed to shelve the discussions around Crimea and to build relations with Russia irrespectively of the ‘Crimean issue’, she said,
“I have a different stance on Crimea.”
“We’ll Have To Give Up Crimea To Release Donbass” – Savchenko Causing Controversy Again
Merkel declared that Russia broke international law when it annexed the Crimean peninsula and there was not chance to end sanctions without these issues being resolved.
