War Party Torpedoes Peace in Ukraine with Bombing

14 de enero de 2016, 10:13Kyiv, Jan 14 (PL) The supporters of the war in Ukraine reiterated their unwillingness to implement the truce agreed in Minsk with the resumption of the bombing of the airport in Donetsk, as was denounced today by rebel sources.

The Security Service of the insurgent Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) confirmed the attack from positions of ultranationalist units against the airfield in ruins, controlled for months by militia, began at midnight and lasted two hours.

Quoted by the News Agency of Donetsk, the source said that Kyiv troops used 82mm mortars and fired a total of 10 mines against the airport in the area dominated by the DPR.

Having referring a few hours ago to the first meeting of the Contact Group in 2016, held yesterday in Minsk, the special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Marti Saidik, highlighted the proposal to achieve a complete cessation of fire over the next two weeks.

Recently appointed by President Vladimir Putin as Russia’s representative in the negotiations, Boris Gryzlov suggested that the ‘regime of silence’ begin at dawn on Thursday, reported Saidik.

The European diplomat added that the implementation of this commitment will be checked at the next meeting scheduled for January 20th, a decision which former president and Ukrainian negotiator Leonid Kuchma also agreed with, according to Saidik.

It is the sixth time since September 2014 that the warring parties agree to observe this commitment included as the first item in the agreements of Minsk 1 (September 2014) and Minsk 2 (February 2015).

The diplomat added that the representatives of the rebels and Kyiv agreed to swap a total of 50 prisoners from both sides before January 20th, on which more information will be provided in the next week, since it could not be ’25 by 25′, he commented.

In his statements to the television, the OSCE official said that Kyiv promised to break the blockade and open new border crossings toward the self-proclaimed popular republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

At the same time, he stressed that a group of important commitments remain unfulfilled, and recalled that there was a proposal to demine 12 zones in Donbass (southeastern Ukraine), and so far this goal has been achieved only at one point.

The Ukrainian conflict has already taken about 10,000 lives, caused almost 21,000 wounded and four million displaced inside and outside of Ukraine, according to the latest estimates from international organizations.

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