Europe, U.S. must help solve Donbas crisis - Putin

It is hard to resolve the crisis in Ukraine without Europe and the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

"This is what I said at a New York meeting with my U.S. counterpart and partner, the U.S. president. I said that without Europe and the United States the situation is unlikely to be settled because it is no use to endlessly blame Russia that is not honoring or not encouraging the authorities of the breakaway republics in southeastern Ukraine to take some action towards implementation of the Minsk agreements, while the Kyiv government is not implementing the key clauses of the Minsk agreements," Putin said at a meeting with the Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday.

"The first thing that needs to be done for the sake of political settlement is to amend the Ukrainian constitution, which is directly required by the Minsk agreements," the Russian president said.

"Importantly, [this should done] on coordination with these territories, the unrecognized republics. The Kyiv authorities have amended the constitution without coordination with these unrecognized republics. They claim to have coordinated [the amendments] with the Venice Commission. However, the Minsk agreements say nothing about the Venice Commission," Putin said.

The Russian president reiterated there was no other way to resolve the Ukraine situation but the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements.

Germany and France can play an important role in doing so, Putin said.

"I think that the German chancellor and the French president rather objectively although I know that they are guided with political considerations and definitely support the incumbent Kyiv authorities but still, to my mind, rather objectively assess the situation and already understand that the problems which have emerged there are not two-color, white and black. Everything is much more complicated," the head of state noted.