WASHINGTON/KIEV, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - US President Barack Obama and his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko have decided that the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan will offer them an opportunity to exert pressure on the Russian president Vladimir Putin to fulfill all aspects of the Minsk agreement, the White House said.
"Both leaders agreed that the Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan on October 16-17 offers a good opportunity for leaders to press President Putin to abide by all aspects of the peace plan, including putting in place an effective mechanism for controlling and monitoring the border between Russia and eastern Ukraine," a statement published Wednesday by the White House says.
A statement published on the Ukrainian president’s website also emphasizes the importance of the control of the Ukrainian–Russian border. According to the document, Obama and Proshenko called for the legitimacy of elections in Donetsk and Luhansk.
“The presidents of Ukraine and the US paid particular attention to the question of the control of the Ukrainian-Russian borders and emphasized that elections in Donetsk and Luhansk oblast need to be legitimate,” says the statement published Thursday.
On September 5, the trilateral Contact Group in Minsk agreed on a ceasefire deal between the Ukrainian government and independence supporters. The group comprises representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Nevertheless, it has been reported that since then, Ukrainian forces repeatedly attacked independence supporters’ positions and residential areas in the region.
