Ceasefire regime still in effect — Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council

World November 05, 2014, 15:19

This statement comes after the shelling of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic that resulted in the death of 20 civilians on Monday

KIEV, November 5. /TASS/. The ceasefire regime “is still in effect” in Ukraine, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Andrey Lysenko told reporters on Wednesday

“The documents, worked out in Minsk on September 5 and 19 are still in effect,” he said. “The ceasefire regime is still in effect.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian military on Monday evening shelled the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in violation of all the agreements specified in the Minsk memorandum. They shelled using the Grad and Uragan rocket systems the towns of Kirovsk, Frunze and Stakhanov in LPR, commander of the LPR people’s militia Oleg Bugrov told TASS.

According to him, more than 20 civilians were killed in the shelling. “The Ukrainian side has been constantly violating the ceasefire regime,” Bugrov said.

According to the UN, more than 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories.

East Ukraine republics consider revising Minsk agreements 

Earlier on Wednesday the newly elected authorities of self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics announced that they are ready to revise the Minsk agreements. 

“Kiev’s move to cancel the law on Donbass special status is dealing a serious blow to the Minsk negotiations process,” the joint statement released by the press services of both republics says.

“Instead of developing it and adopting it in a new version, agreed during the Minsk consultations, Poroshenko simply cancels it and proposes a new one instead which has not been agreed by the representatives of Donbass and which no one has seen.”

Both republics state that their governments cannot act based on the document which lacks “important points” and insist on its revision.

“We are ready to work on the new version of the protocol,” the statement says.

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