Ukraine's EU ambassador, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, speaking today on the security situation in eastern Ukraine at an event organized by the European Policy Center (EPC) think tank in Brussels:
"In my view, what needs to be done is first of all try to safeguard solidarity and unity inside the European Union because the main target, the main objective of the Kremlin is to try to disrupt the unity inside the European Union."
"Even the recent decision of Moscow to stop implementing the famous South Stream project -- it [comes from the] the idea how to best try to split the European Union and how best to try to instigate internal instability inside the European Union. Currently you know that by stopping this project, South Stream, Russia would like to put all of the responsibility of failure on the shoulders of the European Union."
I believe this was part of the leaked coalition agreement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking at a joint news conference with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders in Moscow today. via Reuters:
"We hope that the coordinated line of contact will actually enable the so-called regime of silence and the beginning of the withdrawal of heavy armaments on both sides of the line."
"We have hopes for the cease-fire announced today. It is not the first such announcement, but this current step was very well prepared. There were talks between representatives of the sides of the conflict, and Russian officers were helping with it under a request from [Ukrainian] President [Petro] Poroshenko."
Interfax quotes Ukraine's top commander, Viktor Muzhenko, as saying that 192 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since September 5, when the Minsk cease-fire was agreed.
Also from the same agency:
"The regime of silence will take effect today and we will discuss the fulfillment of other stabilization measures in eastern Ukraine when we have guarantees that hostilities have really been halted," Muzhenko said.
He underlined that the truce "was declared for an indefinite period of time."
Via Reuters:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused Russia of violating international law with its actions in eastern Ukraine but said she would do all in her power to achieve a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
"We cannot solve this by military means," Merkel told a congress of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU). "We will need a lot of patience, but I'm confident we can get through this."
The latest stance within the pro-Russian separatist leadership, according to Interfax:
A date for the Minsk negotiations has yet to be approved; December 12 is a possibility, self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) negotiator Vladislav Deinego said.
"I have not received an invitation to a [December] 9 meeting. We have planned to have a meeting this week, presumably, on Friday, [December] 12. If Ukraine is not ready to sit down at the negotiating table by then, it will happen either on Saturday or on Sunday," Deinego told a press conference on Tuesday.
