After having launchd an offensive on Sunday...."How dare they win, Russian bastards"
Ukraine: Russian-Backed Separatists Just Made Another Land Grab
Ukraine: Russian-Backed Separatists Just Made Another Land Grab
21
January, 2015
Ukraine
has accused pro-Russian separatists of taking advantage of a
ceasefire deal signed last September to seize more territory in the
east and said Kiev would demand its return in any future peace talks.
Foreign
Minister Pavlo Klimkin’s charge that the rebels had seized more
than 500 square km beyond agreed separation lines opened up a
potential new area of discord with Russia in diplomacy aimed at
ending the nine-month-old conflict.
Subsequent
meetings established the separation lines between government forces
and the separatists, whom the West and Kiev say are armed by the
Russian military, a charge Moscow denies.
Despite
the ceasefire call, the Kiev military says more than 200 Ukrainian
soldiers and hundreds of civilians have been killed since September.
The
separatists have sought to dislodge government forces from the
international airport in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, an
important symbol for both sides in a conflict which has killed more
than 4,800 people.
Other
areas where Ukrainians say they have lost territory to the rebels are
in the southeast towards Mariupol, by the Sea of Azov, and around
Debaltseve, a rail hub northeast of Donets.
Klimkin, speaking on the eve of a meeting in Berlin with Russia’s Sergei Lavrov and the foreign ministers of Germany and France, reaffirmed that Ukraine wants to press ahead with talks only on the basis of the Minsk agreements.
“Taking
advantage of the fact that our forces complied with the ceasefire,
the terrorists seized very substantial territory – more than 500
square kilometers,” he told a news conference.
He
said Ukraine in future meetings of the so-called ‘contact group’
involving separatist leaders would seek a “detailed plan to return
to the separation line”.
“But
this line is the line fixed … in Minsk,” he said.
Ukraine
has used the same argument to justify its forces launching a
counter-offensive at Donetsk airport, saying they were pushing back
separatists to the agreed separation lines.
Russia
has criticised the Kiev military’s move as a “strategic mistake”.
The
Kremlin says President Vladimir Putin, in a letter to Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko, has put the emphasis on the need to pull
large-calibre weapons out of the conflict one.
Ukrainian
officials imply Moscow is seeking to avoid other parts of the Minsk
agreements – specifically the need to withdraw foreign fighters and
military equipment from Ukraine
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.