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NATO ‘fully supports’ German-French proposal on Ukraine peace

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (AFP photo)

NATO has voiced full support for the mediatory efforts by Germany and France to end the deadly clashes in eastern Ukraine.

“The situation is very serious, it’s critical and it’s urgent and therefore I fully support the new attempts by (German) Chancellor (Angela) Merkel and (French) President (Francois) Hollande to find a political solution,” Jens Stoltenberg stated in Munich on Friday.

Stoltenberg is currently in the German city to attend the annual Munich Security Conference, which is expected to address the crisis in eastern Ukraine as its topmost agenda.

Earlier in the day, Merkel said it is of prime importance to restore peace to eastern Ukraine as instability in the restive region will affect the whole European continent.

“It’s about representing our interests – German-French – but also European interests... It’s about European peace... and the free self-determination of peoples, which is part of this European framework for peace,” she stated.

Merkel and Hollande held talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Thursday and are scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday in a bid to seek a peaceful solution to the surging conflict in Ukraine.

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have been extremely tense in recent months. The government in Kiev and its Western allies accuse the Kremlin of supporting pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine, saying Russia’s military presence poses a security threat to all other neighboring states. Russia denies the claims.

More than 5,300 people have died in the past months of conflict in Ukraine’s eastern regions, mainly Donetsk and Lugansk, the UN says. The fighting that began in mid-April 2014 and intensified in May has also displaced 1.5 million people.

FNR/HSN/SS


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