Mogherini stresses historic responsibility in talks on Ukraine

“Now it is not for me to get inside the details of what is being negotiated now, even if obviously we are talking, we are exchanging information, but you don’t necessarily make a press release about that, I think we are all grown up to understand that very well,” Mogherini said at a discussion at the European Parliament (EP) on Tuesday.

After questions from a number of MEPs about the status of French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Wednesday’s meeting, the EU diplomacy chief assured they were representing the EU position in Minsk.

“This is a European effort, this is a European exercise. And don’t play politics around this because this is serious,” she told EP members.

Mogherini also urged “the parties, first of all obviously Russia, but those who will meet in Minsk to take this opportunity and finally get to agree on the implementation measures of the Minsk agreement”.

At a meeting with members of the EP Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday, the Russian State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexey Pushkov said that Eastern Ukraine should be granted a “special status”. He said that Russia’s expectations from the Minsk meeting were “security guarantees” for residents of eastern Ukraine. Pushkov openly proposed setting zones of influence, with the EU monitoring the ceasefire in one part of Ukraine and by Russia in the other.

“For these guarantees I think that we should unite our efforts. It is clear that the government of Kiev has established rather close ties with a number of European capitals. And so, if, for instance, the ceasefire on the Kiev side is guaranteed by the European powers, the European countries, by the EU, whatever, that could be an answer that on our side, of course, Russia exercises an influence over the insurgents,” Pushkov said.