U.S. official says Minsk truce being violated "daily":
A senior U.S. diplomat says a cease-fire deal in eastern Ukraine "is being violated on a daily basis."
U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland spoke on May 18 after talks in Moscow with Russian officials.
Nuland said the violations of the Western-brokered agreement signed in February in Minsk by Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels "need to stop."
Nuland suggested that pro-Russian rebels were responsible for the bulk of the violations, which occurred "on the western side of the Minsk line."
She called for OSCE monitors to be allowed in the conflict zone to verify how the cease-fire is being implemented.
Nuland, who arrived in Moscow on May 17 from Ukraine, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Grigory Karasin.
She said her discussions with the two were "very detailed...very pragmatic," and were centered around ways that the United States might be able to support the implementation of the Minsk deal.
The visit comes after Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week.
Nuland also met with veteran human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alekseyeva.
The Kremlin has described a visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland as a sign that bilateral relations are improving. (Reuters, Interfax)
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EU says Russia has dropped opposition to Ukraine trade deal starting next year:
The European Union says Russia has dropped its demands for a further delay in a landmark EU-Ukraine trade deal and accepts that it will now begin next year.
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem made the statement after talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials on May 18 in Brussels.
"The reference that the [trade agreement] enter into force on January 1, 2016, was not contested by the Russian delegation," Malmstroem said.
Russia had said that the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement will damage its own economic ties and interests in Ukraine.
The free-trade deal is part of the broader EU Association Agreement whose rejection by Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in late 2013 sparked the protests that led to his downfall and the current crisis in Ukraine.
The deal was finally agreed in June 2014 and was originally due to come into effect in January.
But in September the EU postponed implementation for a year to support peace efforts in eastern Ukraine.
In return, Russia promised to abstain from retaliatory economic measures. (AFP, Interfax)