KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th September, 2018) The European Union is aware of the assassination of leader of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko and points out the need for the implementation of the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the conflict in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, local media reported citing the EU Delegation to Ukraine.
On Friday, Zakharchenko and his bodyguard were killed in a bomb blast in a cafe in the center of DPR capital of Donetsk, according to the DPR authorities. Eleven others were reportedly injured.
"We have seen reports about that [Zakharchenko's death] since Friday. The conflict in eastern Ukraine resulted in the loss of too many lives. We, as the European Union, continue to work on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements, which remain the stable basis for the sustainable political settlement of the conflict respecting the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," the EU Delegation to Ukraine told the UNN news agency on Monday.
The EU mission pointed out that it continued to expect all the parties to fulfill their commitments.
"As we have already said, we continue to work on the full implementation of the Minsk agreements and in order to achieve that we are maintaining the diplomatic work in the Normandy format as well as the trilateral Contact Group and the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission," the delegation added.
The conflict in Donbas started in 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation against self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics after they refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that came to power after what they considered to be a coup. In February 2015, the warring parties signed the Minsk peace accords to end the hostilities in the region, but the situation has remained tense, with both parties accusing each other of ceasefire violations.
