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Ukraine’s president urges EU to continue putting pressure on Russia

The Ukrainian leader accused the militias of Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics of launching an offensive in the area of Debaltsevo on Thursday
Petro Poroshenko EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ
Petro Poroshenko
© EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

BRUSSELS, February 12. /TASS/. The uropean Union should continue putting pressure on Russia so as to achieve fulfillment of the Minsk accords, President Petro Poroshenko told reporters on Thursday after a speech at the EU summit.

Poroshenko said he had come to Brussels for the purpose of asking for further support.

The Ukrainian leader accused the  the militias of Ukraine's self-proclaimed republics of an offensive, which they had allegedly launched after the signing of accord by the Contact Group for Ukraine in Minsk earlier Thursday morning.

Specifically, he claimed that the so-called ‘separatists’ had resumed offensive operations near the transport hub of Debaltsevo and in a number of other areas.

He described the talks in Minsk as extremely difficult and long ones, saying ceasefire had been the crucial element in the debates there and it had taken the participants almost seventeen hours to reach the agreement.

The news service of the self-proclaimed Luhansk republic, LuganksInformCenter, reported that Ukrainian artillery shelled residential areas in the city of Luhansk Thursday night.

Somewhat earlier, the spokesman for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said three people were killed and another three were wounded in the sheeling of Donetsk and its suburbs.

He added that the intensity of fire had subsided by nighttime, though.