MOSCOW, September 03. /ITAR-TASS/. President Vladimir Putin’s peace plan for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine is not a dogma, its main goal is to establish peace, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
“We hope that the plan will be accepted as the basis in full or in part, that’s not so important. The plan proposed by Putin is not a dogma that is imposed upon anyone. The main point is to achieve the ultimate goal - ceasing fire, satrting talks, and making joint efforts to alleviate the appalling humanitarian situation,” Peskov told the Russian News Service.
Putin outlined the plan while speaking with journalists at the end of his working visit to Mongolia on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that in order to stop the bloodshed and stabilize the situation in southeast Ukraine, the parties to the conflict should immediately agree on and coordinate the following steps:
- End active offensive operations by armed forces, armed units and militia groups in south-east Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas.
- Withdraw Ukrainian armed forces units to a distance that would make it impossible to fire on populated areas using artillery and all types of multiple launch rocket systems.
- Allow for full and objective international monitoring of compliance with the ceasefire and monitoring of the situation in the safe zone created by the ceasefire.
- Exclude all use of military aircraft against civilians and populated areas in the conflict zone.
- Organize the exchange of individuals detained by force on an ‘all for all’ basis without any preconditions.
- Open humanitarian corridors for refugees and for delivering humanitarian cargoes to towns and populated areas in Donbass - Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
- Make it possible for repair brigades to come to damaged settlements in the Donbass region in order to repair and rebuild social facilities and life-supporting infrastructure and help the region to prepare for the winter.
On Wednseday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the peace plan for settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine would work only if all parties involved took concrete steps to implement it. One of such steps would be the upcoming consultations between Ukraine, Russia and the European Union in Minsk on September 5, the Secretary-General’s spokesman said.
Obama has idee fixe about alleged Russian military presence in Ukraine
US President Barack Obama has an idee fixe to accuse Russia of a destructive role in the Ukrainian crisis, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.
Obama said in Tallinn earlier Wednesday that the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine is beyond doubt.
Commenting on the statements, Peskov told the Russian News Service that the American president’s words contradict data of the US Department of State, which admitted Tuesday that it does not have independent evidence that Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine.
“We have repeatedly said there are no Russian troops in Ukraine,” the spokesman said. "When President Obama says it is beyond doubt, US State Department officials… say the US has no proof of Russian troops’ presence in Ukraine.”
“The situation stresses the unwillingness to use facts. It’s just an idee fixe to attribute to Russia a destructive role in the development of the Ukrainian crisis, which we strongly disagree with,” he said.