Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the status of the situation in Ukraine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52819/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The conflict in eastern Ukraine - now in its fourth year - has resulted in over 10,000 deaths, forced 1.7 million people to flee their homes and left an estimated 3.5 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

Despite numerous commitments to a ceasefire, the security situation in eastern Ukraine remains fragile. Over recent weeks there has been a steady increase in recorded violations of the most recent truce with both sides continuing to ignore calls to pull back their heavy weapons from the contact line. Daily shelling has resulted in significant damage to critical civilian infrastructure facilities, in particular water and power supplies, as wells as schools and hospitals. With no let-up in the fighting, little progress has been made this year on implementing the Minsk peace agreements.

The EU remains fully behind efforts to secure implementation of the Minsk peace agreements within the framework of the OSCE Trilateral Contact Group (OSCE, Russia and Ukraine) and the Normandy Format (France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine). The Trilateral Contact Group continues to work on confidence building measures, including exchange of prisoners and disengagement from the contact line.

In September, Russia tabled a UN Security Council resolution for the deployment of UN peacekeepers to protect the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM). While this is a welcome development it remains to be seen if significant concerns over elements of the proposal, including Russia‘s insistence on a role for the separatists in the practicalities of any UN deployment, can be overcome.

The EU economic sanctions imposed on Russia in 2014 for its role in destabilising Ukraine remain in place. The duration of the sanctions is linked to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements. The measures run until 31 January 2018 and it is likely that Member States will agree to their roll over for a further six months given the lack of progress on the ground.

The EU remains fully committed to supporting Ukraine’s continued delivery of its comprehensive national reform programme. It is important to acknowledge the significant improvement that has taken place over the last two years. No country has made as much progress as Ukraine on internal reforms and economic stabilisation while also dealing with an armed conflict on its territory. The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement entered into force on 1 September, enabling the EU to further strengthen its cooperation with Ukraine and to deepen the country’s political association and economic integration with the Union. The fruits of this closer cooperation can already be seen. In the past year there has been a 25% increase in two way trade and this growth is expected to continue in the future.