German Foreign Minister to Visit Donbas During Trip to Ukraine - Kiev

KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th June, 2020) German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will visit Ukraine's Donbas during his trip to the country, as became clear from a statement issued by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's press service on Friday.

Earlier in the month, Maas met in person with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kulebam, who invited him during a joint press conference to visit Ukraine in the summer. On Thursday, Deputy Ukrainian Foreign Minister Yehor Bozhok and German State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office Miguel Berger had a phone conversation, during which they talked about strengthening the Germany-Ukraine partnership in various spheres.

"The interlocutors [Bozhok and Berger] also discussed the visit of German Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to Ukraine at the invitation of Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, including their joint trip to Donbas to observe the security, humanitarian and socio-economic situation caused by the Russian aggression," the ministry said in a statement.

Bozhok also thanked the German side for supporting Kiev financially and technologically, expressing hope for the speedy handling of all the technicalities so that Ukraine can receive about $168 million assistance from Berlin for post-coronavirus recovery.

Since April 2014, the Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation against the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, located in the eastern part of the country.