French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on the Ukrainian president’s arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 26, 2017.
Photo courtesy Ukraine Presidential Press Service
By John Irish and Marine Pennetier for Reuters | PARIS
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he saw no better way of negotiating an end to the conflict in Ukraine than through the Minsk agreements, sharply differing with comments by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Tillerson said on June 14 that the Trump administration did not wish to be "handcuffed" by the 2015 accords, brokered in the Belarussian capital by France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, and he suggested Kyiv could reach a separate, independent agreement with Moscow.
Three years after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and then backed separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in fighting that has seen 10,000 people killed, there is little sign of a peaceful solution despite a ceasefire agreement signed in February 2015 in Minsk.
Speaking after meeting Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Macron said: "We need to give ourselves a few months to succeed within the framework of these accords."
Referring to Tillerson's comments to a U.S. congressional hearing, Macron said: "I see that for some this is not ideal ... but I have not seen a better solution being offered or rather I have not understood it.
"The question is not about the principles since these accords have been signed, but the question of daily implementation," he said.
[…]
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-fra ... kraine-idUSKBN19H19M?il=0