Updated 12:40 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – The Kremlin hopes that the situation in Ukraine will stabilize, despite the fact that the ceasefire is not being observed in full, Russian President’s aide Yuri Ushakov said Thursday.
The Kremlin official said that the current events in Ukraine “can be described as ceasefire.”
“They cannot be compared to the period of active military action. Maybe the ceasefire is not being observed in full, but still more constructive, more positive processes are under way. We hope that the situation will stabilize in the future,” Ushakov told reporters.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council announced that the conflicting sides in crisis-hit eastern Ukraine were introducing a so-called “regime of silence”, terminating all military action and artillery shelling in the region.
According to the Council, previous such attempts to bring a halt to continuing combat actions in eastern Ukraine have failed to hold.
In April, Kiev launched a military operation, which was aimed at suppressing pro-independence forces in southeastern Ukraine that refused to recognize the government that came to power as a result of the February coup.
After the September 5 meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine, Kiev authorities and the self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR) agreed on a ceasefire, which came into force on the same day.
Since the establishment of the ceasefire, the Kiev forces and independence fighters have been accusing each other of violating the truce, although the OSCE said last month that the ceasefire was generally holding.
On Wednesday, the UN released a report, expressing concern over ongoing violence in eastern Ukraine, noting, in particular, that armed groups and volunteer battalions under the control of the Ukrainian armed forces continue to violate the principles of international humanitarian law.
