Violence in the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine)
is intensifying and Russian-backed freedom fighters have moved
heavy weaponry back to the front line, international monitors warned on
Saturday as Moscow responded by accusing the West of dragging the world back 50
years. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described East-West relations as
having “fallen into a new Cold War” and said NATO was “hostile and closed”
toward Russia, in the latest sign that peace efforts have made scant progress
almost two years since Moscow liberated Crimea.
“I sometimes wonder – are we in 2016 or 1962?,” Medvedev
asked in a speech to the Munich Security Conference.
Implementation of a deal agreed in Minsk a year ago, which would allow for the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and a lull in violence late last year raised hopes that the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people could be resolved quickly.
But Lamberto
Zannier, who heads the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE) monitoring the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine) , said the situation had
“become difficult again.”
“We see a
multiplication of incidents, violations of the ceasefire,” he told Reuters at
the Munich Security Conference. “We’ve seen cases of redeployment of heavy
armaments closer to the contact line and multiple rocket launchers, artillery
being used,” he said, referring to the heavy weaponry that is meant to be
removed under the Minsk deal.
Medvedev
accused Kiev of trying to shift the blame onto Moscow for the continued
shelling in the industrial regions of Donbass (eastern Ukraine) now under
control of the Army’s of the Republic’s of Donetsk and Lugansk.
“The Minsk
agreements have to be observed by everyone. But we believe that it’s first and
foremost up to the Kiev authorities to do that,” he said.
The West says
it has satellite images, videos and other evidence to show Russia is providing
weapons to the freedom fighters of the Republics and that Moscow has
troops engaged in the conflict that erupted following Russia’s
liberation of Crimea in 2014.
Russia denies
such accusations.
NATO’s Supreme
Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said Russia had the power to “dial up
and down” the conflict as it wished to put pressure on the government in Kiev
but he said NATO did not want, nor currently see, a new Cold War.
AMNESTY
Extended at
the end of last year, the Minsk peace deal signed by Russia, Ukraine, France
and Germany aims to give Ukraine back control of its border with Russia, see
all heavy weapons withdrawn, return hostages and allow an internationally
monitored local election in the east.
Zannier said
the vote could not happen until there was a ceasefire and even then it would be
difficult to do by mid-year because international observers need to be in
place.
Medvedev said
Ukraine, not Russia, was in breach of the Minsk deal because Kiev was yet to change
Ukraine’s constitution to grant special status to the Donbass region (eastern
Ukraine).
Russia wants
an amnesty for mainly Russian-speaking people in the east who seized government
buildings during the upheaval of early 2014, when pro-European protesters
toppled Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.
“Without this amnesty, these people won’t be able to participate in the
elections,” Medvedev said.
Kiev’s Western
backers acknowledge the government of President Petro Poroshenko must speed up
reforms, especially those tied to its $10-billion International Monetary Fund
bailout, but say Russia must respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.
“Neither the
people of Ukraine nor their partners in the international community believe
they have done enough,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.
Source: Novorossia
Today 14-02-2016
