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Ukraine parliamentary opposition collecting signatures for peace in Donbas

The Opposition Bloc's campaign is aimed to collect signatures for peace to make the ruling coalition see how many people in fact want reconciliation and cessation of the military conflict

KIEV, June 16. /TASS/. Ukraine’s parliamentary faction Opposition Bloc announced on Tuesday it was launching a campaign to collect signatures from citizens demanding an immediate end to hostilities in the country's east.

"The Opposition Bloc has initiated and will conduct a campaign to collect signatures for peace to make the ruling coalition see how many people in fact want reconciliation and cessation of the military conflict," Yuriy Boyko, head of the faction, told a parliamentary meeting. "The government should take public opinion into account."

"Against the backdrop of an escalating political and economic crisis, the nation's leadership is taking decisions which make the situation in the country even worse," Boyko said, adding that Kiev’s total blockade of the Donbas region and conscious disregard for ceasefire agreements reached in Minsk, Belarus, in February, which had gained the support of the international community, could be regarded as "a way to force the entire region and Ukrainian citizens living there out of the country".