KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Saturday that Kiev adheres strictly to the Minsk agreements and that there is strong hope for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in the country's southeast.
"The Minsk-2 agreement has been signed… Ukraine strictly fulfils this measures. First – we have ceased the fire, second – we secured the withdrawal of heavy arms and artillery, third – we facilitated the intensive work of OSCE monitors," Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian Inter TV channel.
“Now the country is at war but there is strong hope for peace,” Poroshenko added.
Ukrainian president also said that the breakaway republics of Donbas “cannot be brought back by weapons, tanks, Grad [missile systems] and missiles only.”
The ministry said that a video recently made by Reuters showed that the Azov battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine employed howitzers banned from Donbas contact line by the Minsk agreements in Schyrokyne, a village in Donetsk Region.
The withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the contact line between the Kiev forces and the independence supporters of Donetsk and Luhansk was among the key points of the agreement signed between Kiev forces and independence supporters in February in Minsk.
