Poroshenko, who was elected past year and has not yet visited Israel as president, has accused Russian Federation of land theft and state-sponsored terrorism over its arming and support for separatists in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where they are engaged in a bloody war with Ukrainian government troops.
Advertisement
Some Kiev politicians accuse Moscow of planning a new rebel offensive that could rattle the Ukrainian leadership enough to reverse its plans to implement a landmark trade treaty with the European Union at the start of next year.
The Ukrainian authorities have been unwilling to do that, negotiating with the rebels via a former Ukrainian president.
Kiev accused the separatists of attacking the residents on the outskirts of Mariupol.
More than 6,700 have been killed by fighting that began in April 2014, and about 1.5 million have left their homes due to a conflict that has dragged relations between Russian Federation and Ukraine’s western allies to their lowest point since the cold war.
He said one man was killed and six more civilians were wounded in a Kiev-controlled village close to the rebels’ de facto capital Donetsk.
In a move that further angered Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Crimea Monday to discuss the region’s faltering development under Moscow’s rule.
The upsurge in fighting weighed on the Russian rouble on Monday.
The already shaky truce between government troops and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine was again thrown into question this week when overnight shelling from both sides killed at least nine people.
“We remain committed to maintaining pressure on Russian Federation to fulfill its commitments under the Minsk agreements and restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity, including Crimea”, the anonymous official said.
“I am sure that despite all the current difficulties the situation in Ukraine will improve and Ukraine will develop”, Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with local officials.
OSCE observers have warned about heavy weaponry that has gone missing after it was withdrawn from the front lines.
These include a full cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of any Russian forces and military equipment from eastern Ukraine as well as thorny issues such as granting Ukraine full control of its eastern border with Russia.
Advertisement
“Putin’s trip to Ukraine’s Crimea and increased fatal violence by separatists look like co-ordinated efforts to undermine Minsk agreements”, Linkevicius noted.
