Germany’s Maas hails 'progress' in Ukraine peace talks
August 24, 2020
The German foreign minister is in Ukraine to help along a potential peace deal in the country’s turbulent east. The current ceasefire there has held for nearly a month.
Image: Imago Images/photothek/F. Gaertner
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German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday lauded "significant progress" towards establishing peace in conflict-ridden eastern Ukraine, after meeting with his counterpart in the country's capital.
"Significant progress has been made recently," Maas said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv. He praised the current ceasefire, which has "lasted longer" than previous ones, and "good progress" on prisoner exchanges and de-mining activity.
Foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine could meet next month to discuss further steps towards ending the conflict, Maas said. Such measures could include restoring Ukraine's control over its borders or holding local elections, he added.
Maas is also expected to meet with President Volodymry Zelenskiy.
Ukraine's President Zelenskiy — from sitcom star to statesman
Despite only being elected nine months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been thrust onto the world stage on several occasions. Here are some of the times the former comedian made his mark.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Supinsky
The sitcom president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a well-known figure in Ukraine before he stood for president — but not as a politician. The comedian and actor starred in a 2015 TV show called "Servant of the People," in which he played a fictional president of Ukraine. In 2018 his production company formed a political party of the same name, and in December 2018 he announced he really was running for president.
Image: Kvartal 95
Fiction becomes reality
Beating the odds, Zelenskiy was elected as president on April 21, 2019. The media-savvy TV star used social media to run an almost entirely online campaign and performed well in the polls from the start. The 41-year-old was also credited with appealing to a younger generation.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/E. Lukatsky
'A PERFECT PHONE CALL'
Zelenskiy was drawn into an international controversy early in his term. A July phone call with US President Donald Trump put Ukraine in the center of the Trump impeachment case. Trump is accused of withholding $400 million (€360 million) in aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskiy to investigate Trump's rival Joe Biden. Trump has denied wrongdoing and later tweeted it was a "PERFECT PHONE CALL."
Image: picture-alliance/AP Images/E. Vucci
Peace talks with Putin
Zelenskiy has made easing tensions with Russia a primary goal of his presidency. As a war between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists dragged on into its fifth year, Germany and France arranged a Paris summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy in December 2019. Among other things, the two sides agreed to several major prisoner exchanges.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/C. Platiau
Iran plane crash perpetrators 'must be held accountable'
Ukraine entered the headlines again in January 2020 after a Ukrainian airliner was shot down over Tehran, killing 176 people, on the same night that Iran fired missiles at US airbases in Iraq. Zelenskiy has been called on by the nations of the victims to act as a mediator with Iran to gain compensation for those affected. "The perpetrators must be held accountable," he said.
Image: Reuters/Handout Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
'Second chance' for his government
In January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk offered his resignation after audio tapes emerged in which he appeared to criticize Zelenskiy's knowledge of economics, saying the president needed to be better educated. Honcharuk resigned on Friday, but Zelenskiy said he would give his government a "second chance" — though he admitted the remarks were "unpleasant."
Image: Imago Images/Zuma/P. Gonchar
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Germany courts Ukrainian peace
Germany has played a key role in mediating peace in the east of the former Soviet country, after conflict erupted there in 2014.
The foreign minister’s visit was intended to help move along a fragile peace process that has emerged in eastern Ukraine since the most recent ceasefire was declared there at the end of July.
"We want to move forward faster in the Minsk process — that's why I'm travelling to Kyiv today, " Maas had said in a Foreign Ministry statement released before his departure.
There have been over 20 attempts at halting fighting in Ukraine since early 2014, when conflict broke out in the country's east over a political swing away from Russia — and towards the EU — that ousted the country's pro-Kremlin president.
Shortly after, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.