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Developments in eastern Ukraine

DPR, LPR plan no offensive and are ready to stop at existing disengagement line

"We are in favour of peace talks, we demand that Kiev sits down at the negotiating table," the DPR and LPR leaders, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, said in a joint statement

Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky EPA/STRINGER

Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky

© EPA/STRINGER

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Poroshenko to blame for failure of Minsk talks — joint statement by LPR and DPR leaders

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) plan no offensive operations and are ready to stop at the existing disengagement line, the DPR and LPR leaders, Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky, said in a joint statement on Monday.

"We want no more blood. We are ready to stop but to stop where we are now. We shall not betray the memory of civilians and our comrades-in-arms who were killed in January. We are in favour of peace talks. We demand that Kiev sits down at the negotiating table," the Donetsk News Agency quotes the statement.

The DPR and LPR leaders reminded that a new spiral of Kiev’s force operation in eastern Ukraine had begun when the Ukrainian military had been ordered to seize the Donetsk airport, which was to be controlled by the DPR in line with the Minsk agreements.

According to the statement, as many as 242 civilians were killed and 273 more were wounded in January. A total of 434 buildings were ruined.

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Ukrainian president admits Russian troops’ advancement

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