The nationalist units
openly said that, if the army withdrew from these positions, they would take
them up, Putin said.
ASHGABAT, October 11.
/TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was unable to ensure the
withdrawal of Ukrainian troops as part of disengagement of forces at Zolotoye
and Petrovskoye in Donbass, the manifestation of political will is needed to
implement that agreement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting of
the CIS Heads of State Council on Friday.
"An agreement on
the disengagement of forces has been reached. However, the incumbent
[Ukrainian] president cannot ensure the disengagement of troops and military
equipment. The nationalist units, which arrived there, openly said that, if the
army withdrew from these positions, they would take them up. The army is not
leaving the area," the Russian leader noted. He added that the Donetsk and
Lugansk people’s republics had signaled their readiness to begin disengagement
several times firing white flares, but there was no response from the Ukrainian
side.
"The
manifestation of political will is needed there," Putin stressed.
"I believe it is
essential to support not specific people, but the policy pursued by them,"
he added. Earlier on Friday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko called
on the leaders of the CIS member-states to support the current Ukrainian administration.
Troop withdrawal deal
At the October 1
meeting of the Contact Group, the parties agreed to begin the disengagement
process at Zolotoye and Petrovskoye. Special Representative of the OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office in Ukraine Martin Sajdik said the disengagement was due
to start on October 7. However, the process was not launched on that day.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadim Pristaiko said a seven-day ceasefire had to be
observed before starting the disengagement.
However, the Donbass
republics recalled that this time that demand was not a condition for launching
the disengagement. The LPR has linked Kiev’s disruption of the effort to an
increased activity of radical forces in Ukraine. Radical groups had staged
protests across the country, and on October 6 militants from the Azov battalion
arrived in Zolotoye calling to stop the planned disengagement.
Ukrainian media
reports later said that the disengagement at Zolotoye had been postponed until
October 9.
The decision of the
Trilateral Contact Group on the disengagement of forces in Donbass was signed
by representatives of Ukraine, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics,
Russia and the OSCE in September 2016. The document stipulates creating three
security zones near Zolotoye, Stanitsa Luganskaya (LPR) and Petrovskoye (DPR).
Disengagement at Zolotoye and Petrovskoye remains the last condition for a new
Normandy Four summit, which has not been fulfilled to date.
Source: ITAR-TASS 11-10-2019
