MOSCOW, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Russia demands Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko put an end to the military operation in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrei Kelin said Friday.
“As soon as Poroshenko wraps up the military operation in the east of the country – as we’ve urged him to – the OSCE will be able to take on an important role in forestalling further violence and creating conditions for a full-scale and inclusive national dialogue,” Kelin said at the OSCE Permanent Council’s meeting.
The Russian envoy noted that almost a month had passed since Petro Poroshenko’s election.
“We are still waiting for the new president to take adequate steps to de-escalate [the conflict], but the peace he promised to ensure in the east of the country is still nowhere in sight. Now the plan is to announce a unilateral ceasefire. We’d like it to happen as soon as possible,” Kelin said.
According to Kelin, a genuine truce is only attainable in an atmosphere of mutual respect and dialogue between the two warring parties, which would help them work out a range of solutions to address the interests of all regions and political groups. One such prerequisite is an amnesty for the protesters, the envoy added.
Since mid-April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a special military operation in the east of Ukraine to suppress the pro-independence movement. The violence intensified after the people’s republics of Luhansk and Donetsk declared their independence from Ukraine after holding referendums on self-determination. Hundreds of people, including civilians, have died in both regions over the past months.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Russia is calling on Kiev to urgently start implementing a crisis-solving roadmap, put an end to the violence and launch a dialogue through the OSCE.
