Slutsky: Minsk agreement works, but its implementation is stretched

Agreements on the settlement of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine are working, although a definitive ceasefire may take some time, the chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, Leonid Slutsky, said.

"You cannot say that the Minsk Agreements are not being implemented in the Donbas. They are working, but their implementation is stretched," he said. 

The head of the Duma committee noted that "any war is not a virtual process, but real, which does not turn off when clicking the toggle, even with strategic arrangements at the level of heads of state." 

Slutsky drew attention to the continuing political confrontation in Ukraine, which, according to him, will also affect the observance of the truce. "We understand that the political standoff continues and the situation in the political arena will remain tense.

At the same time, without firing on either side and daily deaths it will be a very different picture. Now it is necessary to achieve a final ceasefire in the southeast," TASS cited him as saying.