Merkel and Putin Want a Peace Mission in Ukraine

Merkel and Putin Want a Peace Mission in Ukraine. Russia and Germany will jointly explore the possibilities for a peace mission in eastern Ukraine. Their soldiers from different countries should participate. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed that their diplomats will work on this.

 

Merkel said that the next step is to ask for a mandate from the UN for such a peace force. She will consult with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. It has been turbulent for some years in eastern Ukraine. The unrest arose against the background of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. This happened in response to the Maidan protests in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, said by Week News.

Putin received Merkel in his summer residence in the seaside resort of Sochi. The two leaders also discussed, among other things, the civil war in Syria and the ‘nuclear deal’ with Iran, which was recently denounced by US President Trump. Germany and Russia want to keep the agreements with Iran in place.

Merkel stressed after the conversation that Germany, while having a ‘strong transatlantic friendship’ with the US, also considers a ‘strategic relationship’ with Russia to be of great importance. The two also discussed the progress of the Nord Stream 2 project, the construction of a new gas pipeline in the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Putin agreed that gas would continue to flow through pipes in neighbouring Ukraine after the new pipeline has been completed. Merkel wants guarantees about that.

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