Ukraine: Peace Negotiations

(asked on 30th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made in ensuring a sustainable peace plan in Ukraine; and what discussions they have had with the government of Russia about European security, including regional arms control.


Answered by
Baroness Sugg Portrait
Baroness Sugg
This question was answered on 12th May 2020

The UK is committed to supporting Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to ensuring the people of Ukraine are able to define their own future. We welcome President Zelensky's clear commitment to ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian people deserve peace. We have been clear on the importance of finding a diplomatic solution and continue to support the Minsk agreements and the work of Germany and France within the Normandy Format. We welcomed the withdrawal of forces in three zones last year. Since the December Normandy Format summit, there have been two limited prisoner exchanges, but there has been little progress on further disengagement or a ceasefire. The renewed commitment to a ceasefire in the 30 April telephone call between the Normandy Four Foreign Ministers was a further positive step. Continued discussions are a fundamental step in further progress towards peace.

We continue to call on Russia to play its part to end the conflict by immediately ceasing its support for the separatists and fulfilling its obligations under the Minsk agreements. We have repeatedly raised with Russia the need to use its influence on the separatists to provide unrestricted access to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and humanitarian organisations.

The UK last had discussions on arms control with the Russian Federation at the meeting of the five Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) nuclear weapon states, or 'P5', which took place in London on 12-13 February. At that meeting, all five states underlined the importance of reducing nuclear risk and promoting stability, and agreed that dialogue on strategic risk reduction should continue. We also engage regularly with Russia through OSCE conventional arms control instruments and confidence building measures.

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