“Ukraine has finally taken the first step towards a truce” – Kozak
Ukraine only yesterday fulfilled its ceasefire commitments in Donbass, which it assumed in July 2020.
Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Dmitry Kozak stated this today at a press conference in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Yesterday, Ukraine finally took the first step towards a truce, which it should have taken 8 months ago. On July 20, 2020, solely under our pressure, agreements were reached on additional measures to comply with the ceasefire. In accordance with these measures, on July 27, Donbass and Ukraine were to issue appropriate military orders.
Donbass did this immediately, and Ukraine radically distorted the agreements that had been reached. For eight months, our representative and the representative of Donbass called on Ukraine not to distort the agreement and issue an appropriate order. Even in the Normandy format on March 18 there were eight hours of fruitless negotiations and demagoguery. There were deviations from consistently implementing in military orders those measures that bear their signature.
The day before yesterday, my last conversation with Mr. Ermak - he promised to do this. And yesterday morning they did it,” Kozak said.
He believes that this step by Ukraine is evidence that it does not intend to unleash aggression in Donbass.
“For tens of thousands of military personnel on the contact line and the citizens who live there, this is extremely important. In this way, issues of escalation of firefights are resolved. Now opening fire is allowed only by order of the high command and only if contacts between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the armed formations of the LDPR have not led to results. Ukraine has finally confirmed this.
This is yet another confirmation that the previous military hysteria was a PR campaign to consolidate society around the current government. We will see how this is respected. According to the reports received today, the intensity of shelling has decreased. How military orders will operate in the Ukrainian armed forces is a big, big question,” Kozak said.
According to him, after fulfilling its obligations, Ukraine demanded to convene a contact group on Donbass in order to relieve itself of responsibility for the shootings of recent months.
“Everything for one thing. We have finally fulfilled the commitments we made 8 months ago. Now let's take responsibility for the shootings on both sides. And so we didn’t agree on anything. Such a statement cannot be made. One side violated its obligations – Ukraine, and Donbass must also take responsibility,” Kozak said.
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