Kiev is making attempts to escalate the conflict in Donbass, Lugansk People’s Republic People’s Militia chief-of-staff Yan Leschenko said.
Earlier, the LPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) reported that Kiev forces had violated the ceasefire in the LPR responsibility zone five times over the past 24 hours. Strikes were delivered at the areas of Zolotoye-5, the Sokolniki, Vaselenkoye and Nizhneye Lozovoye villages and the Donetsky township.
“Tensions on the contact line have increased dramatically over the past 24 hours,” Leschenko said. “The enemy is making attempts to escalate the conlict at direct orders of the Kiev military and political leadership.”
He urged international monitors to “record facts of aggressive actions by Kiev gunmen and take immediate measures to prevent bloodshed in Donbass.”
The members of the Contact Group have announced ceasefire more than 20 times since the autumn of 2014. Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large caliber artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn in accordance with the Minsk agreements.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The document provides for ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line. *i*s
