Germany and France on Tuesday urged Kiev to root out corruption and quickly adopt a law on elections in the pro-Russian separatist east that may help resolve Ukraine’s 22-month war.
“We need for the economic reforms to be pushed forward,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a joint press conference attended by his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and Ukraine’s Pavlo Klimkin.
“But it is essential that this policy is based on a principle of zero tolerance for corruption,” Steinmeier stressed. He added that “we cannot accept that there are so many violations of the ceasefire and that the electoral law is being postponed” by Ukraine.
Such a law “would be the basis for elections to be organised in the east.”
Berlin and Paris have been spearheading Western efforts to end a revolt against Kiev’s pro-Western leadership that has claimed more than 9,000 lives in the EU’s backyard. But a peace plan signed one year ago that was meant to find a permanent solution by the end of 2015 has expired with few of its commitments met.