Ukraine Day 1225: LIVE UPDATES BELOW. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded in action today.
Yesterday’s coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
Schastye power station. File photo.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said both Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists were violating a ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported:
“It’s very difficult to find a way out after so many years,” Gabriel told an event hosted by the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Of course we are trying, but it does not look like we will have a (short-term resolution) of the difficulties in the region.”Gabriel said he backed continued efforts by the so-called “Normandy format” group – involving Germany, France, Ukraine and Russia – to resolve the crisis, but observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were not optimistic, given the situation in the region.
Earlier President Emmanuel Macron, the new leader of France, said he was committed to keeping the Normandy format, a group for peace talks started in 2014 by the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine at an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the landing at Normandy in World War II.
Macron said he looked forward to resuming the talks in early July. He said they would discuss the “Minsk process” and not another option outside it. He said Ukraine must retain its internationally-recognized borders, and did not recognize the annexation of the Crimea.
On the Mariupol line, Pavlopol was attacked.
— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick
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