Slovakia concerned about Ukraine situation, solution in Minsk Deal

Slovakia is growing increasingly concerned about the latest developments in south-eastern Ukraine, Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák told Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Martin Sajdik on Tuesday. "Slovakia supports the efforts of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) to see the withdrawal of military personnel and heavy weaponry from the line of contact in Donbas region and to create conditions conducive to finding a sustainable solution," the Foreign Affairs Ministry's press department wrote in a release on the same day. According to Lajčák, the recent eruption of fighting around Avdiivka serves as evidence that the crisis in south-eastern Ukraine is far from resolved and demands constant attention. "Our joint goal in this situation must be to seek ways of hastening the implementation of already concluded agreements into practice. Europe can't afford another frozen conflict. Maybe the Minsk Agreements aren't yielding results in an instant fashion, as we would like to see, but they continue to represent the only sensible tool for putting an end to the conflict that we have on our hands," he claimed. In the talks with Sajdik, Lajčák also spoke about preparations for Slovakia's OSCE Presidency, slated for 2019. "Currently, we're in the stage of building the presidency team and selecting priorities. One of them will be the situation in Ukraine, but also other conflict zones to which the OSCE pays attention," added Lajčák. At a session held in Minsk in February participants of the Trilateral Contact Group for halting the conflict in Donbas (representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE) arrived at an agreement according to which both sides of the conflict must withdraw all heavy weaponry banned by the Minsk Agreements by February 20.