European Parliament member Jacek Saryusz-Wolski has said that news from Berlin about progress being made during the ministerial talks on the Ukrainian crisis sound like a threat that peace negotiations are being used by Russia as an instrument of territorial conquest, to win time and force Ukraine and the West to agree on a new settlement, changing the one agreed in Minsk, to the detriment of Ukraine.

"Real progress can only be made once the Russian and Russia-instigated violence stops," said the Polish diplomat.

He also deplored the loss of innocent lives of civilians in the current escalation of the fighting in Eastern Ukraine: "If Russia wants to be serious about peace, it should implement the Minsk Agreement from September, which involves removing all military equipment and personnel from Ukraine, stopping supplying weapons to the terrorist militants, returning control of Ukraine's international border to the Ukrainian Government and releasing all hostages, including those being held in Russia, such as Nadia Savchenko, member of the Ukrainian Parliament and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe."

"On the contrary, amid declarations of the Kremlin's good will, we are witnessing the shameful escalation of invasion and increased presence of Russian troops and sophisticated weaponry in Ukraine's Donbas. Such a hypocritical policy must be strongly rejected and can only be seen as the Kremlin's attempt to bypass its obligations under the Minsk Agreement and to prepare for more aggression," he continued.

According to the MEP, Moscow policy also aims at further increasing pressure on Ukraine and the West towards unacceptable constitutional concessions, undermining the unity of the Ukrainian state, "under the cover of what it falsely calls peace negotiations."

The Polish deputy also offered his condolences to the families of civilians recently in Donetsk.

"It is also deplorable that more and more innocent civilians are suffering from Russian aggression and Russia-sponsored terrorism. We particularly stand by families and relatives of those killed and wounded in Volnovakha and in the recent shelling of a trolley bus in Donetsk. In these days of intensive fighting, our thoughts also go to the Ukrainian soldiers – cyborgs – whose bravery and courage in defending the symbolic Donetsk airport represent the highest act of sacrifice", he concluded.