Ukraine aims to destroy ceasefire deal: Russian UN envoy
Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vitaly Churkin has accused Kiev of seeking to “destroy” a recent ceasefire agreement by calling for the deployment of UN-mandated peacekeepers to eastern Ukraine to enforce the deal.
Churkin said on Thursday that Kiev aimed to ruin the deal, which was reached last week in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, shortly after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko made the request for the peacekeeper during an emergency meeting.
Churkin said, “When someone, instead of doing what he has signed up to, suggests a new scheme and so soon, that raises suspicions that he wants to destroy the Minsk accords.”
“If one proposes new schemes right away, the question arises if (the accords) will be respected,” he added.
The request by Poroshenko was approved by Ukraine’s national security and defense council late Wednesday.
The remarks by Churkin come after the pro-Russia forces in Donetsk announced that a total of 3,088 government troops have been killed in fighting in the eastern flashpoint city of Debaltseve.
On February 18, Ukrainian soldiers began withdrawing from Debaltseve.
A previous truce reached between the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in September 2014 fell apart after being violated by both sides.
Donetsk and Luhansk are two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine that have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russians and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations against the pro-Russians in April 2014.
Violence intensified a month later after the two flashpoint regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.
More than 5,700 people have reportedly been killed in the unrest.
SZH/HJL/HMV
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