Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko rejected a peace plan proposed to him last week by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Sunday evening, according to Russian media.
“In recent days, Russia has consistently made efforts to mediate the conflict. In particular, on Thursday night,” according to Peskov.
He said Putin sent a written message to Poroshenko, in which both sides of the conflict were offered a concrete plan for removal of heavy artillery, and the letter was received by President of Ukraine Friday morning,” RIA Novosti reported.
“The latest developments in Ukraine connected with the renewed shelling of populated areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions cause grave alarm and put in jeopardy the peace process based on the Minsk memorandum,” Putin’s letter reads.
Putin suggested the immediate withdrawal of artillery with a caliber more than 10mm to the distance defined by the Minsk agreements. Russia is ready to monitor the fulfillment of these moves jointly with the OSCE, the letter concludes.
However, Peskov said the Ukrainian leader rejected the plan without offering alternatives and “started military actions all over again,” resulting in an “absolute degradation of the situation in the southeast of Ukraine.”
Russia’s foreign ministry accused Kiev of using the ceasefire to “regroup its forces, trying to take a course for further escalation of the conflict with a purpose to ‘settle’ it in a military way.”
The ministry said in a statement, “We are deeply concerned by the fact that the Ukrainian side continues to increase its military presence in the southeast of the country in violation of the Minsk agreements.”
