Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Ukraine

Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Taavi Rõivas. Kiev, 22.02.2015. Photo: valitsus.ee

Prime Minister Rõivas said that the international community must follow the results of the II Minsk agreement attentively. “It is regrettable that, so far, not all the parties have respected the agreement,” Rõivas noted and referred to the intensified fighting in the direction of Debaltseve and Mariupol after the conclusion of the agreement. However, the military action has decreased there in the past few days.

“Simultaneously with the performance of the terms and conditions of the peace agreement, it is also important to point out that the agreement has been violated,” Rõivas said. “The European Union must be united on this issue and also ready to react decisively, if necessary,” Prime Minister Rõivas confirmed to Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

“In the event of the non-compliance of the II Minsk agreement, sanctions must be continued to be taken and if one party does not comply with the terms and conditions, these sanctions must be also tightened, if necessary,” Rõivas said.

Prime Minister Rõivas recognised the efforts of Ukraine in following the ceasefire and implementing the terms and conditions agreed in Minsk.

In the meantime, progress has been made in supporting Ukraine’s public finances that was discussed at the previous meeting of the Prime Ministers one and a half months ago. “It is positive that in cooperation with the European Union, the USA and the International Monetary Fund, a sufficient amount of loan assistance to Ukraine has been agreed on in order to ensure that the national budgetary costs would be covered,” Rõivas said. In addition to military action, the condition of the national budget has been worsened by the hryvnia exchange rate against the euro, which has fallen to one-third of the value of last year.

The Prime Ministers also discussed bilateral cooperation between the two countries and Estonia’s options to support Ukraine. In addition to international loan assistance, the Government of Estonia has decided to support Ukraine with 2.35 million for humanitarian and development aid.

Prime Minister Yatsenyuk also introduced the views of Ukraine on the creation of a possible UN peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.