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Zelensky says Ukraine's ex-president pushing people to protest against disengagement

According to the incumbent president, Poroshenko forgets that he is not president anymore
Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky  Pyotr Sivkov/TASS
Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky
© Pyotr Sivkov/TASS

KIEV, October 10. /TASS/. Ukraine’s former president Pyotr Poroshenko is pushing people for a "maidan" protest against the disengagement of forces in Donbass, the country’s head Vladimir Zelensky said during a press marathon in Kiev.

"He opposes the disengagement process and thinks that it can cause a ‘maidan.’ Moreover, he is pushing the people, through his media outlets and by his actions," Zelensky pointed out.

According to the incumbent president, Poroshenko forgets that he is not president anymore. Zelensky added that the former head of state was wrong if he thought that he could lead a new "maidan" protest.

The Contact Group on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine agreed at its recent meeting that the disengagement of forces in the Zolotoye settlement, located in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), and in the Petrovskoye settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) would begin on October 9. However, like many times before, Ukraine once again disrupted the disengagement process, the Donbass republics said. Ukrainian radical nationalists opposing the disengagement plan have stepped up their activities along the line of contact. Nevertheless, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) remain in the area, waiting for the disengagement to begin.

Disengagement agreement

Representatives of Ukraine, the Donbass republics, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) signed a framework agreement on the disengagement of forces in three areas of Donbass in September 2016. The document sets up security zones near the Zolotoye and Stanitsa Luganskaya settlements in the LPR, as well as near the Petrovskoye settlement in the DPR. The disengagement completed in the Stanitsa Luganskaya zone in June 2019.

The disengagement of forces in Zolotoye and Petrovskoye is the last condition for a Normandy Four summit.