At the weekend the Chancellor spoke with President Obama and President Poroshenko about Russian plans to send an aid convoy into eastern Ukraine. They agreed that any convoy of this sort could only be organised under the aegis of the International Committee of the Red Cross and with the authorisation of the Ukrainian government.
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The German government is observing the worsening of the humanitarian situation in the eastern Ukraine with great concern, said federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert on Monday. Germany has already provided humanitarian aid and is basically prepared to become involved in a convoy headed by the International Committee of the Red Cross or the United Nations.
Apart from this, the German government welcomes that fact that Ukraine and Russia are working to achieve a basic agreement on the whole issue of humanitarian aid, and that the details are to be negotiated within the scope of the Contact Group, which brings together representatives of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine.
Sending any aid convoy into the area where there is heavy fighting without the authorisation of the Ukrainian government seriously risks escalating the situation, and any such plans should thus be rejected, said the government spokesperson.
The German government also hopes to see constructive steps on the part of Russia, to stop the flow of weapons and combatants. The Ukrainian government is expected to protect the civilian population in all measures in and around Donetsk, and to retain a sense of proportion, stressed Steffen Seibert.
On 7 August in a telephone conversation Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Petro Poroshenko discussed how to support the efforts of the Contact Group to bring about a ceasefire. The Contact Group consists of representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Russia and Ukraine.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Poroshenko are extremely concerned about reports that separatists are blocking experts’ access to the crash site of the Malaysian passenger aircraft as a result of continuing fighting. The experts must once again be enabled to continue their work at the crash site, they demanded.
On Wednesday the Chancellor spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. She urged him to use the influence he has over the pro-Russian separatists to bring about a ceasefire that is respected by both sides.
Angela Merkel stressed that the overarching goal is still to stabilise Ukraine, but she also expressed her concern that the separatists were still receiving new supplies from Russia.
Russia has responded to the EU’s sanctions package, which came into force on 1 August, with a ban on imports of meat, fish, dairy products, fruit and vegetables from all EU states and the USA. "It is not yet clear what impacts this will have in detail on the German food sector," said Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Christian Schmidt.
The Federal Minister of Agriculture pointed out that Russia’s import ban will harm it most of all. Its decision to boycott western imports will not only have an impact on the German and European economies. It will also hit Russian consumers directly.
In 2013 German agricultural and food exports to Russia were worth about 1.6 billion euros. Ranking alongside the USA, Russia was the second most important trading partner outside the EU, after Switzerland, for German exporters of agricultural produce. Last year German agricultural exports to Russia were already adversely affected by a Russian ban on imports of certain dairy and meat products. German agricultural exports dropped by 14 per cent.