Kyiv demands plan to make Russia heed eastern Ukraine pact

LISBON, Portugal – Ukraine’s foreign minister says he wants an internationally agreed road map for peace in the east of his country that would prevent what he calls Russia’s backsliding on its commitments under a shaky peace agreement.

Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin says Kyiv wants a plan “to mesh together the sequence of steps and the guarantees that Russia would deliver” under last year’s Minsk agreement.

Klimkin, speaking to reporters in English during an official visit to Lisbon, Portugal on Friday, says a road map would “not let Russia escape its commitments, like the case now.”

The Minsk deal, brokered by France and Germany, helped end major fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatist rebels and Ukrainian government troops. The two sides have accused each other of sporadic cease-fire violations.