Ukrainian National Security, Defense Council head dismisses Russia’s accusations on Ukraine’s violation of Minsk agreements

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

KYIV. Dec 14 (Interfax) – Ukraine is fully implementing the Minsk agreements on the settlement of the situation in Donbas and Russia’s statements on their violation by the Ukrainian side are provocative, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov said.

“When Russian representatives in the United Nations say that Ukraine breaches the Minsk agreements, this is another provocation. Ukraine is consistently implementing the Minsk agreements and all the international commitments it assumed,” Turchynov told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.

Commenting on the accusations by the Russian side that the Ukrainian army is taking under its control several settlements in the buffer zone in Donbas, the secretary of the council said: “I want to say that all the cities are Ukrainian.”

“The point is what the Russian army is doing on the Ukrainian territory and why they are doing everything to foil the Minsk agreements. Meanwhile, the Russian occupational troops and their under-controlled terrorist groupings breach the Minsk agreements every day, particularly this is the waging of the constant fire on Ukrainian positions […] To our great misfortune, not a single day passes in our country without shellings, including by weapons, which are banned by the Minsk agreements,” Turchynov said.

“Ukraine is honoring its commitments assumed in Minsk and all the actions by our armed forces are exactly in line with the implementation of the Minsk agreements […] We understand the Minsk agreements as a full liberation of the Ukrainian territory from Russian invaders,” Turchynov said.

The Russian political and military leadership has previously repeatedly rejected the presence of the Russian troops in eastern Ukraine.

 

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