The United States believes a hard-won Ukraine ceasefire accord is “imperfect” but still much better than having nothing at all to help resolve the bloody conflict, a senior US official said today.
US ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute said the agreements also offered “a glimmer of diplomatic hope” on ending a war between Kiev and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine which has cost more than 6,000 lives.
“Implementation of Minsk has been mixed and uneven but it is better than no Minsk,” Lute told reporters ahead of NATO foreign ministers meeting next month where Ukraine will again be a top agenda item.
A first peace accord agreed in September in the Belarus capital Minsk between Ukraine and the rebels and backed by the European Union and Russia, failed to halt the fighting.