Interfax: Luhansk republic leader announces “closure” of Debaltseve

MOSCOW. Feb 17 (Interfax) – The fighting zone in Debaltseve is closed, so all hostilities are taking place inside the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky has said.

“We have a continuous line. The Debaltseve ‘boiler’ is closed. It is Ukraine who cannot and does not want to recognize this. All hostilities taking place there now – and they really are taking place there – are currently within out internal territory. And we are entitled to decide on our own what to conduct there and how,” he said, according to the Luhansk information center.

At the moment, the Trilateral Contact Group is holding a video conference to discuss the set of measures approved in Minsk, he said. The LPR is represented at the talks by its official Minsk negotiator, Vladislav Deinego, he said.