DONETSK (Sputnik) – On Saturday, Poroshenko said that Ukraine would not advance in the political process before restoring control over the border between Russian and the Donestk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
“Today we conducted drills, which are connected with two issues. The first one is a sharp escalation on the contact line, and the second one – a statement of Petr Alekseyevich [Petro Oleksiyovych] Poroshenko that fully revoked the Minsk agreements and practically initiated a new cycle of hostilities,” Zakharchenko said at an emergency meeting, as quoted by the Donetsk News Agency.
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of what many considered to be a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement, which was agreed by the Normandy Four countries, namely Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk.
Key points of the Minsk agreements include a ceasefire, heavy weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, constitutional reforms, including a decentralization of power in the country, and granting a special status to the Donbass region.
