MOSCOW, June 22, 14:35 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday urged dialogue between all parties to the Ukrainian conflict.
“The truce should result in dialogue between all conflicting sides so that a compromise acceptable to everyone could be found and people residing in Ukraine’s Southeast feel that they are an integral part of the country, possess all rights of citizens of the state and these rights are among other things guaranteed by the country’s fundamental law - the Constitution,” Putin said after laying a wreath to the Eternal Flame of the Unknown Soldier’s Tomb in Moscow’s Alexandrovsky Garden next to the Kremlin walls.
On June 22, Russia marks the Memory and Sorrow Day. It was established under a presidential decree of June 8, 1996 to mark the anniversary of the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union - the beginning of what once would be called the Great Patriotic War.
A Kiev-led punitive operation against federalization supporters in Ukraine's Southeast that Kiev calls an antiterrorism operation involves armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. It has already claimed hundreds of lives, including civilian, left buildings destroyed and damaged and forced tens of thousands to flee Ukraine to Russia.
Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko announced a ceasefire in Ukraine’s embattled Southeast from 22:00 local time (23:00 Moscow Time, or 19:00 GMT) on Friday, June 20, until 10:00 local time on June 27.
On Friday, Poroshenko, during his first working trip to the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Region, presented a peace plan to settle the situation in Ukraine’s troubled East.
But Alexander Borodai, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said Saturday that the ceasefire does not work.
“Despite yesterday’s statement by the Ukrainian president on a ceasefire on the part of the Ukrainian army from June 20 to 27, artillery fire and aviation strikes against [the city of] Slavyansk resumed in the morning of June 21,” Borodai told Itar-Tass.
The Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which border on Russia, held referendums on May 11, in which most voters supported independence from Ukraine. South Ossetia recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on June 18. No other countries have followed suit yet.