LUGANSK (Sputnik) – Leader of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) in Ukraine’s southeast, Igor Plotnitsky, considers Kiev’s blockade of the southeastern regions a recognition of LPR’s and DPR’s (Donetsk People’s Republic’s) independence.
"We interpret this action as recognition of independence of the two republics [LPR and DPR], because history knows no such case, where a blockade is carried out inside a single state against its own people," Plotnitsky said in a Thursday interview posted on his official website.
On March 17, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to sever all transport connections with LPR and DPR until a ceasefire was fully established in the southeast.
Kiev launched a special military operation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in April 2014, when local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup.
After independence referendums held in May 2014, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics (DPR and LPR) were established.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Kiev has been reluctant to implement a number of Minsk deal provisions.
The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, a weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to DPR and LPR. Both sides of the conflict, however, have been constantly accusing each other of violating the agreement.
