Putin blames Kyiv for unwillingness to have substantive political dialogue with eastern Ukraine
YAKUTSK. Sept 1 (Interfax) - The Kyiv authorities are unwilling to have a substantive political dialogue with southeastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
Putin told BBC reporter John Sweeney on Monday he believed that the main reason [for the problem] was the unwillingness of the incumbent Kyiv authorities to maintain a substantive political dialogue with the eastern areas of their country.
As to the militia, Putin said their goal was to move the Ukrainian army away from big cities of the east.
The goal of the militia forces is to move away the armed forces and their artillery and to not let them fire at residential areas, the Russian president said.
The dialogue between Putin and Sweeney occurred when Putin was visiting the P. Lazarev Mammoth Museum of the Northeast Federal University.
The president described the Ukrainian events as a tragedy and explained the meaning of "the developing military operation in the east" and the intensified activity of the militia.
"They [the actions of the militia] derive from the fact that regular Ukrainian forces have encircled large populated areas and are directly firing at residential areas," Putin said.
It is a primary objective to save the civilian population of these cities, he said.
"Regretfully, many countries, including those in Europe, prefer to overlook that," Putin said.
He noted that "a very important process, a process of direct negotiations" was about to start.
Putin added they had had to work for long together with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the European colleagues and reached an agreement in the end.
"Contacts are now being restored," Putin added.