MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s entire peace plan revolves around a request for the east Ukrainian militia to lay down their weapons and be destroyed, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
"It's necessary to sit down and talk and not sit on completely unrealistic demands that the militia lay down their arms and allow themselves to be destroyed. Petro Poroshenko’s entire peace plan means just that," Lavrov said in his address to the students of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), a university belonging to the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry.
On Friday, Poroshenko said he expected his peace plan to de-escalate the crisis in eastern Ukraine to stop the war, including installing a ceasefire in the region, in early September.
A weeklong ceasefire was announced by Ukraine’s new president on June 20 and was then extended for another three days. As the truce was called off without a further extension on July 1, the active phase of Ukrainian operation in the east’s restive regions resumed.
Lavrov said earlier that the peace plan did not comply with the April 17 Geneva Accords, as it did not include a nationwide dialogue. He said, however, that Russia favored the first steps made by the Ukrainian government toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Since mid-April the Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation in the east of Ukraine to suppress independence supporters, who refused to acknowledge the new government that came to power after a coup in February. The fighting intensified after Donetsk and Luhansk regions proclaimed their independence in May.
More than 2,500 people, including the victims of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash, have been killed and more than 6,000 injured since the start of Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine, according to the United Nations.
Russia has repeatedly condemned the operation and has urged Kiev to stop the bloodshed in the region.
