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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Kiev rules out new Contact Group meeting now

The adviser of the Ukrainian Security Service, Markiyan Lubkovsky, accused the east Ukraine militia of violating agreements

Contact Group on Ukraine meeting in Minsk, September 19, 2014 ITAR-TASS/Gennady Zhinkov/BelTA

Contact Group on Ukraine meeting in Minsk, September 19, 2014

© ITAR-TASS/Gennady Zhinkov/BelTA

KIEV, November 14. /TASS/. An adviser of the Ukrainian Security Service, Markiyan Lubkovsky, said a new meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk is impossible for Kiev for the present.

“There will be no Minsk-2. We have Minsk-1 and agreements that must be fulfilled,” the Ukrainian Pravda newspaper quoted him as saying on “1+1” television.

The adviser accused the east Ukraine militia of violating agreements.

On Thursday, the chief negotiator of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic for Contact Group talks in Minsk, Denis Pushilin, said that representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) were ready to go to Minsk in the next few days and start working.

Pushilin said the pause in the work of the Minsk group was too long and it was unclear why Kiev delayed agreeing on a date and an agenda for the next meeting. It seemed that Kiev wanted the Minsk process to be stopped to have no direct contacts with the republics.

Pushilin said the self-proclaimed republics supported the Minsk format with the participation of Russia, the OSCE, the DPR, the LPR and Ukraine.

Earlier, the chairman of the People’s Council of the Luhansk Republic, Alexey Karyakin, said the main positions of the republic’s leadership for talks of the Contact Group in Minsk would remain unchanged.

The militia of the DPR and LPR have repeatedly reported about gunfire strikes against cities by Ukrainian forces, which caused many deaths among civilians. On Wednesday, the Defence Ministry of the DPR blamed Kiev’s military for using phosphorus ammunition.

The Contact Group had two meetings in Minsk. On September 5, a 12-point peace protocol was signed for settlement in south-eastern Ukraine. The main were agreements on a ceasefire and exchanges of captives. On September 20, the group signed a nine-point memorandum on a ceasefire. It included prohibition to use all kinds of weapons and withdrawal of guns of more than 100-mm caliber 15 km away from the confrontation line by both sides. The OSCE was to monitor the compliance with the memorandum.

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Donetsk Eastern Ukraine

Military operation in Ukraine

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