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THE Ukraine Today he denounced an escalation of violence on the front lines with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, and called on Westerners to intervene, while Moscow said it feared “all-out war” in the region.
“We have seen an escalation of the conflict in recent weeks”said the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Germak, during a teleconference.
“Premeditated challenges are being carried out against the Ukrainian armed forces to end” the fragile ceasefire in force since July, the longest since the war broke out in 2014. “, he continued.
Germak called Washington and Kiev’s European allies, like Paris and Berlin, “contractors” of the peace process, to “intensify” their efforts to calm the situation.
The war in Ukraine Donbass, which has killed more than 13,000 people since the outbreak, began after a pro-Russian Ukrainian president fled to Russia and pro-Westerners arrived in Kiev. In the wake of this regime change, Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine.
After months of heavy fighting, hostilities greatly escalated with the signing of the Minsk peace accords in February 2015.
Four years later, former actor Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine with a promise to end the war. However, after some time of progress – a summit, some prisoner exchanges and the withdrawal of troops from several small areas of the front – the peace process was again at a standstill.
In 2020, the warring parties managed to agree to a new ceasefire, which was more or less respected for months, leaving hope for a more lasting settlement.
Last year Ukraine reported 50 soldiers killed in its ranks compared to 100 in 2019, a decrease mainly due to this truce, but since the beginning of the year, the tension has gradually started to rise again.
“We have what has not happened to us in months, we have some of our trips (to the conflict zone) that had to be postponed because shots were heard during the night.”, he stated Florence Gillett, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ukraine.
Kiev has implicated Moscow and the separatists by accusing them of using weapons prohibited by the Minsk peace accords.
Since mid-February, eight Ukrainian soldiers have died on the front line. Kiev has accused Moscow and the separatists of using weapons prohibited by the Minsk peace accords.
The separatists announced today the death of three fighters.
The Kremlin on Thursday expressed “deep concern over the growing tensions” at the front, blaming Kiev.
“We see more and more shelling coming from the Ukrainian side,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said, warning of the risk of a “total war” repeating.
Despite his denials, the Russia He is considered in Kiev and the western capitals as a supporter of the separatists giving them troops, weapons and funding.
“Russia is a party to this conflict, not a mediator,” European Council President Charles Michel said during a visit to the front in Ukraine on Tuesday.
“Moscow is trying to pressure Kiev, to intimidate it,” said Oleksandr Litvinenko, director of the Kiev Institute for Strategic Studies.
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