DONETSK, April 23 (RIA Novosti) – By resuming an operation against pro-federalization protesters, Kiev has demonstrated that it is not willing to implement the Geneva agreement to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine, a senior commander of self-defense forces in eastern Ukraine told RIA Novosti Wednesday.
“They did not suppress that they are not going to implement the Geneva communique, they will continue to repress us, put down the protest, to put it mildly,” said Sergei Tsyplakov, deputy head of the Donbas self-defense forces.
Tsyplakov added that since the Geneva talks last week, Kiev’s interim government had repeatedly violated the agreement. Ukrainian authorities even allowed the shootings in Slaviansk on Easter Sunday, when unidentified gunmen drove by a checkpoint and opened fire at self-defense forces celebrating Easter, he said.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's acting President Oleksander Turchinov ordered the country’s security forces to resume a special operation in the country’s east, recently swept by pro-federalization protests.
In a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underlined the need for Kiev to take urgent measures to implement the Geneva agreement, which calls for an end of violence and a total rejection of extremism in the country.
Ukrainian authorities launched a special operation in a crackdown on pro-federalization activists in eastern regions of the country that have been swept by rallies since last month. Protesters in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Slaviansk and Kramatorsk refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian government and are urging interim authorities to hold referendums similar to the one held in Crimea last month, which led to the republic's reunification with Russia.
In a bid to de-escalate the ongoing conflict, top diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union approved a statement on April 17 calling on the sides in Ukraine to refrain from violence, extremism and provocations, disarm militants and launch a national dialogue on constitutional reform.
