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'No mines were cleared there. So don't get any closer, please."
Visit to the »contact line«.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is visiting a village on the Azov Sea on her trip to Ukraine.
Location: Shyrokyne, Mariupol Region, Ukraine
Ukrainian soldier:
"The shelling was carried out by enemy artillery and tanks."
Since 2014 there have been repeated clashes between Russian militias and the Ukrainian army here in south-eastern Ukraine.
Here runs the real front line of a war that has never been declared.
Annalena Baerbock, Federal Foreign Minister:
»You can feel what happened here years ago.
That people lost everything they had from one day to the next.
Children's toys are still on the side of the road, houses have been destroyed.
Once a holiday resort - now a testimony that we are at war in the middle of Europe.«
Baerbock's visit to the situation center at the front is intended to be a sign that Germany is supporting Ukraine.
100,000 Russian soldiers continue to threaten the border, and experts and Western politicians continue to fear an invasion.
There is a ceasefire on the Sea of Azov - actually and because of the Minsk Agreement.
Nevertheless, the fighting continues.
Kiev and Moscow accuse each other of violating the agreement.
Annalena Baerbock, Federal Foreign Minister:
“Above all, these places make it clear how important it is that we breathe life into the Minsk Agreement again.
So that we can come to a situation where there is peace and that people can continue to live in the region that is their home.«
On site, Baerbock also visited the Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
The OSCE monitors are supposed to monitor the ceasefire.
Again and again, they report, fighters loyal to Russia get in their way.
Annalena Baerbock, Federal Foreign Minister:
»The mission must be able to do its job.
With technical support from us as the Federal Republic of Germany.
But it must also be able to do its job by ensuring from all sides, especially from the Russian side, that this mission can really carry out the surveillance that it is actually here for.«
On Wednesday, the Foreign Minister wants to travel to the next crisis region: to Israel and the Palestinian territories.