Chairmen of LPR and DPR People’s Councils Denis Pushilin and Vladimir Degtyarenko called upon world leaders to compel Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko to stop crimes against Donbass people.
“Ukrainian authorities continue the genocide against Donbass population,” Pushilin and Degtyarenko said in a joint statement to Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“As a result of regular contact line shelling, social infrastructure facilities, industrial enterprises and residential houses were damaged,” the document said.
“Ukrainian military deliberately targets industrial facilities whose damage might cause an environmental disaster in the region,” the chairmen said.
“Ukraine did nothing to restore the banking system, thus denying remittances, pensions and social benefits to citizens. This foremost causes the suffering of pensioners, the most vulnerable group making up some 30 percent of the population.
“We ask you to stop Ukraine and compel Poroshenko to cease criminal actions against Donbass people. Make Poroshenko stop shooting at civilians and lift the economic blockade. It must be done before it is too late. Prevent great trouble before an environmental and humanitarian disaster occurs in our land. Stop Poroshenko! Save Donbass people!” Pushilin and Degtyarenko urged the world leaders.
The members of the Contact Group at the meeting in Minsk on December 21st agreed to enforce a comprehensive and durable ceasefire in effect from December 24th. The deal has become the 10th truce agreement since the autumn of 2014. Earlier, Kiev forces regularly violated the truce opening fire with large calibre artillery, mortars and tank guns which were to have been withdrawn in accordance with the Minsk agreements.
The Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements was adopted by the Contact Group on Ukraine on February 12, 2015 and supported by member states of the Normandy Four (Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France). The UN Security Council approved the document by its 2202 Resolution and called upon all the sides to ensure full implementation of the Package of Measures.
The document provides for comprehensive ceasefire, withdrawal of all heavy weapons from the contact line, starting a dialog on reconstruction of social and economic ties between Kiev and Donbass. It also envisages carrying out constitutional reform in Ukraine providing for decentralization and adopting permanent legislation on a special status of certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.
