MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. Intensified shellings on the contact line between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) may undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
"The Kremlin wants the parties to meet their commitments, first of all, on halting the shellings of territories where civilians live and in general the shellings of territories in the self-proclaimed republics," Peskov stressed.
"We believe that this is unacceptable and this mainly mars the prospects of creating a predictable situation in peaceful life," Peskov said.
Last week, head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Leonid Pasechnik warned that the LPR would be forced to take decisive measures and shift the line of contact with the Kiev-controlled territory if the Ukrainian side went ahead with its shelling attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
In comment on this statement, Peskov said Moscow was "concerned over the continuing shellings by the Ukrainian side." "We all saw the results of these shellings and we saw that unfortunately, these shellings tend to intensify. This directly creates a situation that threatens the lives of residents of the self-proclaimed republics who live in the contact line zone. Of course, this cannot but cause general concern," he said.
Peskov also noted that against this background the harsh stance of the self-proclaimed republics was quite clear. "This situation is indeed turbulent, unstable and arouses concerns," he stated.
Shellings in Lugansk republic
On May 16, a power supply line delivering electricity to critically important infrastructure facilities in the LPR was damaged as a result of shelling by Kiev troops.
Shortly after that Pasechnik addressed Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky with a strong request to take measures and stop unprovoked shellings, as well as to provide proper security guarantees for those repairing critical civilian infrastructure facilities. He warned that in case the armed forces of Ukraine continued such actions, the LPR would be forced to move the contact line away from this power supply line. The official said the people’s militia of the LPR was put on combat alert in connection with the incident. He described the regular shelling attacks against the republic as an act of deliberate provocation by the Ukrainian troops.
The LPR leader called upon Russia, Germany, France and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to put pressure on Ukraine for ensuring a real ceasefire.
Since the fall of 2014, members of the Contact Group on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine announced ceasefires in Donbass more than 20 times. The leaders of the Normandy Four group (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) at a meeting in Paris on December 9 emphasized the need to establish a comprehensive ceasefire in Donbass before the end of 2019. However, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue shelling attacks.