Interfax: Kyiv seeks international support for peace efforts in eastern Ukraine – statement

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KYIV. June 22 (Interfax) – The Ukrainian law enforcement units unswervingly abide by the president-ordered unilateral ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, but members of illegal armed formations continue armed attacks defying the truce, the Ukrainian foreign and defense ministries said in a joint statement on Sunday evening.

“Demonstrating the determination to protect citizens and to safeguard national security, Ukrainian President and Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Petro Poroshenko has started implementing the peace plan for settling the situation in individual regions of eastern Ukraine,” the statement says.

The president’s unilateral ceasefire order to the Armed Forces. National Guard, border guards and Interior Ministry’s troops was the first step, the statement says. “Ukraine unswervingly abides by the course towards peace,” it says.

The statement also says that the Ukrainian president’s position has been unanimously backed by the world community.

However, “the militants and terrorists responded to the initiatives capable of restoring peace, by renewed armed attacks in brazen defiance of the truce,” it says.

Last night alone, the statement says, illegal armed formations launched eleven gunfire attacks on the military positions near Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Artyomovsk and other cities. During the day, they carried out a series of assaults and shelling attacks against Ukrainian border guards near the populated areas of Krasnopartizansk, Biryukovo and Nozdryovka in the Luhansk region. Provocations continue, the statement says.

In this connection, the law enforcement ministries are urging the world community “to condemn the terror attacks which aim to escalate the situation further.”

“Ukraine urges all foreign partners to support our state’s consistent efforts to restore peace and to ensure unconditional compliance with the Geneva statement of April 17 by all of its signatories,” the statement says.

Ukraine expects Russia “to give real and active support to the Ukrainian president’s peace plan, ensure the effective protection of the border from terrorists and use its indisputable influence on the illegal terrorist groupings in the east in its entirety for the purpose of attaining immediate ceasefire and their surrender,” the statement says.

 

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