- Kiev shuts windows of opportunity for making peace in south-eastern Ukraine
- Ukrainian government trying to shake off responsibility for conflict in Donbas — report
- LPR, DPR leaders agree to conduct talks only with Kiev's presidential envoy
- Ukraine army units retreating to previous positions from Debaltsevo — DPR Defense Ministry
- Ukrainians grow unwilling to serve in the army — media
- Moscow hopes the West will influence Kiev’s policy positively to advance peace settlement
DONETSK, January 28. /TASS/. Kiev’s initiative to recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR, respectively) as "terrorist organizations" is to frustrate the Minsk dialogue, Denis Pushilin, the DPR’s representative at the Contact Group and deputy speaker of the DPR legislature, said on Wednesday.
"Unfounded statements uttered at the Verkhovna Rada [Ukraine’s parliament] alleging that the DPR and the LPR are terrorist organizations are nothing but another attempt to withdraw from the Minsk negotiating process and make further constructive dialogue impossible," he said.
"By admitting a possibility of recognizing the people’s republics as terrorists, Kiev actually excludes a possibility of reaching a truce, since no talks are conducted with terrorists," he said, adding that these moves were Kiev's populist steps, clownery for the foreign press."
Pushilin stressed that the apparently opponents of a peace settlement in eastern Ukraine prevailed in the Ukrainian parliament. "It is the party of war, which makes impossible the activity of those who want a peace settlement," he said.
"Currently, the negotiating process is in the air," he said. "Its possible continuation will depend on concrete manifestations of aggression by Kiev, including in the form of economic blockade. The situation is to be looked at comprehensively."