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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Russian deputy: to name LPR and DPR terrorist organizations unlikely to bring peace

MOSCOW, December 10 /TASS/. An initiative to name the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR) terrorist organizations as well as remarks about the inexpediency of holding the Minsk-2 negotiations is undermining a possibility of dialogue and peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, a Russian deputy said on Wednesday.

Leonid Kalashnikov, the first deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee for International Affairs, told TASS that Western advisers were standing behind the actions of Ukrainian politicians.

“All of them are pushing Ukraine to some radical actions without offering any help in return,” Kalashnikov went on to say.

Earlier on Wednesday, a group of deputies from the Popular Front party submitted a bill to Ukrainian parliament /Verkhovnaya Rada/ on recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics /DPR and LPR/ as terrorist organizations.

The group of deputies was headed by the Popular Front’s faction leader Alexander Turchinov.

“What agreements could have been reached at Minsk-2? A further ceasefire, the disengagement of the sides in conflict and recognition or non-recognition, at least partly, of the status /of LPR and DPR/,” Kalashnikov said assuming that they /the Kiev authorities/ were apparently not ready to do that yet.

“It’s going to be all the same to us if Ukraine’s rada (parliament) passes a law recognizing Russia as an aggressor country and the LPR and DPR as terrorist organizations,” Kalashnikov added.

But that “will certainly not bring peace to Ukraine,” he concluded.

Tags

Foreign policy Donetsk Eastern Ukraine

Terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall

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