Kiev Sends Protest Note To Italian Foreign Ministry Over DPR Office In Verona - Embassy

Kiev has sent a protest note to the Italian Foreign Ministry over a representation office of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) recently opened in Verona, the Ukrainian Embassy in Rome said on Monday

KIEV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2019) Kiev has sent a protest note to the Italian Foreign Ministry over a representation office of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) recently opened in Verona, the Ukrainian Embassy in Rome said on Monday.

On Saturday, the DPR Foreign Ministry announced that the office which is second such mission in Italy and the sixth in the European Union opened in Verona. President of Independent Veneto Committee and deputy head of Association Veneto-Russia Palmarino Zoccatelli became the chairman of the new office.

"In response to it, the embassy and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry are taking political and diplomatic measures. [We have] sent a verbal note to the Italian Foreign Ministry, as well as requests to the prefecture and questura [police office] of Verona, expressing protest against anti-Ukrainian provocations aimed at undermining the common European position in support of the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian state, and seeking to ascertain the legal status of this 'representation office,'" the embassy wrote on Facebook.

In 2014, Kiev launched a military operation against the DPR and its neighboring Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) after they proclaimed independence from Ukraine, refusing to recognize the new Ukrainian government that had come to power in what they perceived to be a coup. In February 2015, the conflicting sides signed the Minsk peace accords in an effort to end the fighting in the crisis-torn region.

However, both Kiev and the breakaway republics continue accusing each other of ceasefire violations.