He said this in an interview with the Hromadske. "Minsk Agreements, they’re between Russia, Ukraine, and the OSCE, and the idea is that you’re restoring the normal governance and local elections in Donbass, and restoring to Ukrainian control. There’s not a place in that for the so-called Republics", — he said.
Volker noted that the parties have so far "still not in agreement on what the exact mandate would be".
He also expressed the hope that there will be "decision to change what it’s been doing" in the behavior of Russia.
"If it does that, if it really says, “Ok, we’re prepared to move on”, then all of these things will follow through. I hope that we will force Russia not to consolidate, but rather to withdraw its forces, giving way to peacekeepers", — Volker said.