MINSK. Feb 16 (Interfax) - Moscow raised the subject of lifting the coal blockade of Donbas at a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine, and it is hoping that Kyiv will hear this call, Boris Gryzlov, Russian representative to the group, told reporters on Thursday.
"We raised the question of clearing the railways blocked by the Ukrainian side. There are reasons to believe that these calls will be heard in Kyiv," Gryzlov said.
There is still no alternative to the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, including the political part as regards resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, he said.
Ukrainian radicals have blocked the railway in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions to prevent trade with the part of Ukraine uncontrolled by Kyiv since January 25.
On January 26, Ukrainian prosecutors opened a criminal case into the blocking of the railway in the Luhansk region on the dividing line on the basis of the article dealing with "the blocking of transport lines."
The blockade has led to an acute shortage of coal for the Ukrainian energy industry.