MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russia is concerned about the existing data about Kiev deploying additional military equipment and weaponry to the contact line area in the Donbas region, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Andrey Rudenko told a session of the OSCE Permanent Council. The text of his speech has been posted on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday.
"We are gravely concerned about reports by the Special Monitoring Mission on a sharp increase in the number of artillery bombardments on the line of contact and the growing number of ceasefire regime violations," Rudenko noted. "According to the available data, in recent days the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not only been pulling in additional military equipment and weaponry to the contact line in Donbas but also deploying new command points and bringing logistic and administrative services closer to the frontline."
"One gets the impression that Kiev is preparing another large-scale armed provocation in south-eastern Ukraine, the way it was last August. The consequences of such steps may be unpredictable," the diplomat said.
The diplomat noted that the Kiev government was unwilling to implement the military aspects of the Minsk-2 package of measures and get down to implementing the political aspects.
"Instead of trying to resolve the existing problems and establish a dialogue with the representatives of Donetsk and Luhansk, who signed the Minsk agreements, Kiev is openly simulating and imitating the process. They continue shifting the blame for disrupting the Minsk agreements to the militias and Russia," Rudenko stressed adding that Kiev’s policy could undermine all diplomatic efforts spent on enhancement of the Minsk peace process.
"The whole situation can roll back significantly and military hostilities can resume. We cannot let that happen," Rudenko stressed.
Kiev unwilling to decentralize power
According to the oficial, the Kiev government has infinitely postponed the question of Donbas’s special status despite the requirement contained in the Minsk agreements.
"The Ukrainian authorities refused to discuss the constitutional amendments with representatives of Donetsk and Lugansk as is provided by the Minsk agreements and is using some intricate legal language to hide its unwillingness to carry out real decentralization and give special status to the separate districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," the Russian diplomat said.
"The discussion of this issue has been put off indefinitely," Rudenko stressed.