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Developments in eastern Ukraine

DPR urges Germany, France to pay attention to ceasefire violations near Donetsk airport

Self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Contact Group envoy called this an illustrative and blatant example of how Ukraine crudely violates point one of the Minsk agreements

© Alexander Khudoteply/TASS

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Media: Kiev forces start shelling Donetsk airport

MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. Authorities in east Ukraine’s self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Monday called on Germany and France to take note of violations of the ceasefire around the Donetsk airport.

On Monday, a group of thirty journalists who had arrived at the airport together with local defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin witnessed the shelling carried out from Kiev’s positions.

"We want the leaders of Germany and France to pay attention to this case," the Donetsk news agency quoted Denis Pushilin, the Donetsk republic’s chief negotiator at Minsk peace talks, as saying.

"This is an illustrative and blatant example of how Ukraine crudely violates point one of the Minsk agreements. And about 30 journalists witnessed that," Pushilin said, noting that "efforts of the European leaders and the Russian president for Minsk peace initiatives were under serious threat of failure".

People’s militia was "ready for the withdrawal of weapons by both sides as outlined in the package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements", he added.

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Last Thursday, February 12, the Belarussian capital Minsk hosted hours-long overnight talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Besides, there was a meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine attended by former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, special representative for humanitarian issues and leader of Ukrainsky Vybor (Ukrainian Choice) public organization Viktor Medvedchuk, the heads of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) special envoy for Ukraine, Heidi Tagliavini, and Russia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Mikhail Zurabov.

The meetings produced a package of measures to implement the Minsk agreements, such as the ceasefire in certain areas of east Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from February 15, the withdrawal of heavy weapons and measures for long-term political settlement of the conflict in Ukraine.

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Eastern Ukraine

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