Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minster
With an EU foreign ministers' meeting scheduled for tomorrow and at least one report that EU ambassadors were summoned for an emergency meeting tonight on Ukraine, here are comments in Berlin by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier:
"The fact that the mortal remains are being treated so inhumanely, the fact that the separatists are still not prepared to release the bodies four days after the crash, that fact that and international investigation of the crash site is still being thwarted -- all of this is not acceptable and clearly shows what kind of people we are dealing with."
"Unfortunately, we cannot perceive Russia interfering with the separatists in a vigorous way to stop these dishonourable acts at the crash site and to let the international investigations begin."
"We are at a point where we are far behind our and my expectations as to the realization of agreements [achieved so far]. That is why I do not expect a big argument and a falling out tomorrow [at an EU foreign ministers meeting] over the question how to heighten the pressure [on Russia]."
"I believe we'll rather have a lengthy discussion [at an EU foreign ministers meeting] about how we can came back into a durable political process beside heightened pressure and sanctions -- a process that promises to lead towards an armed truce. But we must not forget that sanctions do not replace the political process -- one just tries to accelerate it."
"We will prompt Russian President [Vladimir Putin] with all means available to us to distance himself from the conduct of separatists and we will heighten the pressure on the political agents with all means available to us as [EU] foreign ministers."
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