Kosachyov calls aggravation in Donbas orchestrated performance
MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax) - Escalation in Donbas looks like a provocation orchestrated by Kyiv, Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the Federation Council committee on international affairs, said.
"This provocation looks very much like a well-orchestrated performance. The president of Ukraine goes abroad, ostentatiously interrupts his visit, and begins appealing to the international community in the same ostentatious way," Kosachyov said at a Federation Council meeting on Wednesday.
"In the meanwhile, the United Nations Organization, the OSCE or Germany, which he left so hastily, are absolutely definitely not rushing to blame the militia or Russia. Moreover, there are objective monitoring data that it's the Ukrainian military that are trying to occupy new zones and shift the contact line approved in Minsk in their favor in a hugger-mugger way," he said.
The senator said he believes the Ukrainian authorities "continue doing everything possible and impossible to disrupt the Minsk Agreements and they continue attempts to achieve a military solution to the internal conflict, which is being presented as an external one."
"The Ukrainian troops have taken positions in the neutral zone, breaching the ceasefire. It's a radical breach of [the] Minsk [Agreements]. And if Kyiv is refusing to fulfill the Minsk Agreements, it means that the aggressor should be compelled to fulfill them by the international community. What is hypocritically called an anti-terrorist operation in Kyiv has long turned into a real terrorist operation," Kosachyov said.
