Morning Star.png Lavrov Points the Way to Peace James Tweedie, The Morning Star, London, 15 February 2016 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has argued that only federal autonomy for eastern Ukraine can bring peace there. Mr Lavrov was speaking to reporters following a meeting of the so-called Normandy Format states of Ukraine, France, Germany and Russia in the German city of Munich on Saturday. "A constitutional reform is indispensable for Donbass to achieve its permanent status," he said, "and must also lead to the appropriate legislation - and not just for three years, but on a permanent basis." Sergei Lavrov.jpg Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia A civil war has been raging in coal-rich and heavily industrialised Donbass - comprising Lugansk and Donetsk provinces - since the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged all sides to abide by 2015's February 15 Minsk II peace deal, which includes commitments to federalisation and an amnesty for Donbass anti-fascists to allow participation in elections. But Mr Lavrov warned that the refusal by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's government to recognise self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics as equal partners in the negotiations was jeopardising the agreement. "A discussion on amnesty, as well as the modality of the local elections, must take place - something that Kiev systematically avoids," Mr Lavrov said. Poroshenko Mr Poroshenko, however, called for the return of control of the Ukrainian-Russian border in the Donbass to Kiev. And he condemned Russia's role in Syria as well as Ukraine, calling it "a demonstration that we live in a completely different universe with Russia." Medvedev At the Munich security conference on the same day Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev accused NATO of restarting the cold war. He told the conference that the deployment of troops to Russia's borders and sanctions over its reunification with the Crimea could "only aggravate" tensions. Stoltenberg, Kerry His comments came after NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said: "Russia's rhetoric, posture and exercises of its nuclear forces are aimed at intimidating its neighbours, undermining trust and stability in Europe." US Secretary of State John Kerry said that the EU and US would continue to "stand up to Russia's repeated aggression" and noted that Washington plans to quadruple military spending in Europe. From: <http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-aab5-Lavrov-points-way-to-peace-in-eas t-Ukraine#.VsFNy_l9600> http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-aab5-Lavrov-points-way-to-peace-in-east -Ukraine#.VsFNy_l9600 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
