Interfax: Putin suggests Ukraine conflicting parties cease fire, pull back artillery guns larger than 100mm

(Interfax – January 19, 2015) The text of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s message to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was published on Sunday night. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax about the message earlier.

“The latest events in southeastern Ukraine – the resumed bombardments of populated areas in the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk – give us a deep sense of anxiety and in effect threaten to derail the peace process based on the Minsk memorandum of September 19, 2014,” Putin said in his letter as read out in a program on Channel One.

“It is my proposal that both sides, both the Ukrainian military structures and the militias of Donbass, the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, take urgent measures to cease fire, and that the parties to the conflict immediately withdraw armaments of calibers larger than 100 millimeters to distances set by the Minsk memorandum of September 19, 2014, from the de facto line of contact as marked on the map attached,” Putin said.

“We, for our part, will be ready to organize control of such moves jointly with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” he said.
As reported, Putin’s message was sent last Thursday but Kiev rejected it and did not offer anything in substitution.

“Over the past few days Russia has been making consistent efforts as a conflict settlement mediator. Among other things, on Thursday night the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, sent a written message to the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, in which a concrete plan was put before both parties to the conflict for the withdrawal of heavy artillery. The Ukrainian president received the letter on Friday morning,” Peskov told Interfax earlier.

“Unfortunately, the Ukrainian side rejected the plan and made no counterproposal, and, moreover, resumed hostilities,” he said. “As a result we can all currently see unceasing bombardments of Donetsk and an absolutely degrading situation in the southeast.”

“There is extreme anxiety in Moscow at the current developments. The bombardment of residential districts in Donetsk has resumed, and people are getting killed again,” the spokesman said.