Thursday 19 February 2015

Russia accuses Ukraine of aiming to destroy Minsk accords

Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has denounced Ukraine's call for the deployment of UN peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine as a destructive move.
The Ukrainian president's call "raises suspicions that he wants to destroy the Minsk accords", Mr Churkin said. Continue..

The Minsk ceasefire deal was reached a week ago but fighting round the strategic town of Debaltseve saw the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops there.
Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine also criticised the proposal.
Mr Churkin accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of seeking a new scheme instead of doing what he had signed up to.
"If one proposes new schemes right away, the question arises whether [the accords] will be respected", he said.
The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic described the call for peacekeepers as a violation of the Minsk accords.
The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, the four parties to the Minsk accords, held further talks over the phone on Thursday.
The French presidency said the ceasefire breaches were denounced and the leaders called for "the implementation of the full package of measures agreed in Minsk" including a full ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons and the release of prisoners.
Mr Poroshenko called for UN-mandated peacekeepers to enforce the ceasefire after fighting continued following the rebel advance on Debaltseve.
A police mission by the European Union would be the best format for a peacekeeping operation, Mr Poroshenko said on his website.
It would help guarantee security "in a situation where the promise of peace is not being kept", he told an emergency meeting of Ukraine's national security and defence council.
Analysis: Jonathan Marcus,
Could a peacekeeping force help to secure the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine?
Well for a start there would need to be a functioning ceasefire; nobody is going to send troops into an active war zone. Just getting agreement at the UN for such a force might be an insurmountable diplomatic hurdle.
Russia - with a key veto power on the Security Council - is not just an interested bystander. Despite its denials, it is seen by Ukraine and the West as an active participant in the conflict.
An effective peacekeeping force paradoxically might be in nobody's interests. Peacekeepers tend to fix battle lines in place. In Ukraine both sides probably have further ambitions on the ground. The Russian-backed separatists may well want to advance further and the Ukrainian government's forces certainly aspire to take back territory that they have lost.
Many experts fear there is a lot more fighting to be done whether this ceasefire is implemented or not.
Nearly 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers withdrew from Debaltseve on Wednesday.
Mr Poroshenko said the withdrawal had been organised, but that at least six soldiers were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Earlier, a senior Ukrainian military official said 22 Ukrainian soldiers had died in Debaltseve over the past three days. Rebel claims of a much higher figure have been dismissed by the government.
The ceasefire, which officially came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed elsewhere in eastern Ukraine and some heavy weaponry is said to have been withdrawn by both sides.
However, monitors from the OSCE security group have been unable to reach Debaltseve. Rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin said the town was now "completely under the control" of the separatists, with just "scattered" pockets of resistance that were being "neutralised".
He claimed that more than 300 government soldiers had been taken prisoner. Ukraine's government admitted some troops were being held.
All Wednesday, the road out of Debaltseve into government-held territory thundered to the sound of retreating armour - tanks and troop carriers full of exhausted, sometimes defiant soldiers.
In a bus by the side of the road, I found one Yuri slumped on his seat, across the aisle from a sleeping colleague.
He said the situation had become increasingly dire and individual units had taken their own decisions to leave. They were running out of ammunition and in danger of being surrounded, he told me.
He blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for deceiving everyone about the ceasefire. We know him well by now, he said. When he says something is guaranteed, that means there's some kind of trap coming up.
In nearby fields, mortars and multiple rocket launchers fired back at the rebels - providing cover for those still trying to leave Debaltseve.
President Poroshenko says the withdrawal was planned and organised, but on the ground, it looked like a hasty retreat in the face of overwhelming odds.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the rebels' offensive had put the wider peace agreement at risk.
The White House said both the rebels and Russia had failed to live up to the terms of the Minsk agreement.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the rebels' actions in Debaltseve had not violated the ceasefire because it was a rebel-held city at the time of the agreement.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow said the feeling there is that a lull in the fighting may now be possible - rather than an immediate push for more territory by the rebels.
Correspondents say the loss of Debaltseve is a significant setback for Ukraine because of its strategic position as a transport hub between the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Most of its 25,000 population has been evacuated but about 5,000 civilians are still believed to be in the town.
Fighting began in eastern Ukraine in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.
The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed, but there are fears the actual death toll could be much higher.
Ukraine's pro-Western government says Russia is supporting the separatists with troops and weapons, but the Kremlin has consistently denied this.

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