Bad peace

The sides of the conflict in the east of Ukraine accuse each other of violating the ceasefire

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin will present the peace plan of the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to regulate the situation in the east of the country in Luxembourg at the the EU Council today. Regardless of the week-long ceasefire announced by Kyiv between June 20th and 27th, shots are still heard in the conflict zone. Both the representatives of the Ukrainian army and the separatists claim the violation of the ceasefire. The leadership of the self-proclaimed “People’s Republic of Donetsk” claims that the Ukrainian army is not complying with the “peace plan” of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in particular his point regarding the ceasefire in the east of the country. “At the omen the so-called ‘peace plan’ of Poroshenko is not being carried out, the Ukrainian army is engaging in military action on the third day of the ceasefire declared by the Ukrainian President,” stated the Prime Minister of the “PRD” Alexandr Boroday to Russian agency “Interfax.” That the separatists themselves are violating the ceasefire was written by the representative of the Ukrainian group “InfoResist” Dmytro Tymchuk on his Facebook page: “According to operative data of InfoResist, last night the mercenaries in Donbas shot at the ATO positions near the village of Kremennaya from mine launchers. Two soldiers have been wounded. Overall in the past day, the mercenaries of “PRD” and “PRL” held terrorist actions (shootings and sabotage) in 6 districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblast. ATO forces adhere strictly to the conditions of the ceasefire announced by the President of Ukraine. The soldiers only open fire as a response to mercenaries’ attacks.” In the last 24 hours, the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts violated the ceasefire over 20 times. The forces of the illegal military formations, according to Tymchuk, shot at Ukrainian military bases near Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Artemovsk. The Ukrainian soldiers only opened fire to respond to the attacks. As the NSDC Information Centre notes, the illegal armed formations are increasing their presence in the conflict zone and continue to create new location bases and points there. Source: Svoboda Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina