Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk today to congratulate him on Ukraine’s ratification of its Association Agreement with the European Union. The Vice President also congratulated the Prime Minister on the passage of laws on Amnesty and Special Status for parts of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, in keeping with the ceasefire protocol agreed to by Russia and Ukraine in Minsk on September 5, 2014. Finally, the Vice President and Prime Minister agreed that Russia and its separatist proxies now needed to immediately implement in full the twelve points of the Minsk Agreement, including the removal of all Russian troops from Ukraine and the creation of a security area in the border regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation.