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‘Unusual military activity’ in Donbass conducted by Kiev, not Russia — delegation advisor

It has been carried out since 2014, the advisor said

VIENNA, April 14. /TASS/. "Unusual military activity" has been carried out in Donbass by Ukraine since 2014, adviser to the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control Yulia Zhdanova said at an urgent joint meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation and the OSCE Permanent Council.

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"Unusual military activity does take place in Europe. It has been carried out in Donbass since 2014, and with numerous violations of the Vienna Document 2011. This is being done by Ukraine, which, by all indications, has been under external control since then," Zhdanova said in a statement obtained by TASS.

She put the spotlight on the fact that Ukraine has been conducting military activities on its soil for seven years in a row, involving up to 70,000 troops and massive amounts of military equipment, without prior notification under the Vienna Document of 2011. Kiev also failed to invite observers to the region.

Zhdanova was also surprised at the fact that there has been no response from the West to Kiev’s violations of the provisions of the Vienna Document. That may indicate that it is discredited as a confidence building tool, she noted. "The hypocritical disregard for truly unusual military activity - Kiev’s ongoing punitive operation against the Donbass civilian population - against the backdrop of their excessive interest in Russia’s routine, low-intensity exercises involving minimum numbers of weapons and personnel, discredits the Vienna Document as a tool to build trust between the participating states," she elaborated.

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