MOSCOW, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Moscow hoped that the laws adopted by Ukraine last week would give impetus to the further development of peaceful dialogue in Ukraine, Russian Presidential Administration chief Sergei Ivanov said Sunday.
"An entire package of laws has been passed in Ukraine that give a chance of settlement as well as an impetus to the further development of peaceful dialogue," Ivanov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily in an interview.
"The current achievement has made it possible to halt military actions, even though peace is still rather fragile. 'The Party of War' has not disappeared in Ukraine, but I hope the desire for peace will prevail," Ivanov said.
The Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday approved two bills offering major concessions to independence-seeking insurgents, granting amnesty to detained insurgents and "special status" to regions in eastern Ukraine for three years.
Meanwhile, Ivanov expressed the hope that agreements on the postponement of the implementation of Ukraine's association agreement with the European Union would be finalized on paper.
"It was decided that the implementation of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union will be postponed for one year, but it was a verbal agreement," Ivanov said. "I hope it will be committed to paper."
Moreover, he noted the normalization of relations between Russia and Ukraine takes time and effort, but it is inevitable. " We must create conditions for that," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted Ivanov as saying.
"I think Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has started to realize that he does not need an ever-lasting war," Ivanov added.
Representatives from the Ukrainian government and rebel groups in eastern Ukraine signed a deal Saturday to establish a weapon- free buffer zone after holding peace talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk, while a cease-fire agreement was reached on Sept. 5 after envoys from the two warring sides as well as Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe held talks in Minsk.
