Twice in recent days (July 10 and 14), German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande have jointly demarched Kyiv to, first, legalize the Donetsk-Luhansk authorities in Ukraine’s constitution, and next, to legitimize those authorities through local elections in those territories. Moscow has been airing similar demands publicly. But the Kremlin has not (at least not officially) contacted Ukraine’s leadership by telephone to press those demands recently. Instead, Merkel and Hollande have been working the phones toward that end.
In their conference call with Poroshenko on July 10, Merkel and Hollande welcomed the “start of the constitutional reform, aiming for …read more
Source: The Jamestown Foundation