MOSCOW, May 22 (RIA Novosti) – Kiev is not abiding by the Geneva agreement and continues to step up its security operation against peaceful citizens in eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.
“We are observing that Kiev’s authorities are not ready, and do not desire to implement the agreements that were reached in Geneva Statement of April 17, and that were developed in the Road map prepared and officially extended by Swiss Chairmanship of OSCE,” Lukashevich said.
Lukashevich reiterated that the documents called for an end to violence in the country.
“But Kiev has not only not called off, but is consistently stepping up the punitive operation against its own people, subjecting cities and villages in eastern Ukraine to regular shootings, including from heavy weapons,” the diplomat said.
A roadmap for the reconciliation process in Ukraine, recently unveiled by the OSCE, provides for concrete steps necessary to de-escalate the crisis in the country, including reducing violence, disarmament as well as facilitating national dialogue and elections.
It also stipulates a series of high-level roundtable discussions led by the OSCE aimed at bringing all sides of the Ukrainian conflict to the negotiating table.
On April 17, top diplomats from Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the US met in Geneva to agree on a number of conditions that urged the coup-imposed regime and its opposition in Ukraine to refrain from violence, extremism and provocations, to disarm militants and launch a national dialog on constitutional reform.
Despite the agreement, acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov launched a special operation in mid-April to crack down on pro-federalization protests.
Russia has called the Western-backed military operation against the protesters a “punitive act,” and accused Ukraine’s authorities of waging a war against their own people.
