Kiev's Steps Do Not Show Intention To Peacefully Resolve Conflict In Donbas - Zakharova

Kiev is pulling equipment and weapons to the contact line in southeastern Ukraine, there is no need to talk about steps towards a settlement by the country's authorities, while the European Union turns a blind eye to the attitude for a military solution to the conflict in Donbas, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd April, 2021) Kiev is pulling equipment and weapons to the contact line in southeastern Ukraine, there is no need to talk about steps towards a settlement by the country's authorities, while the European Union turns a blind eye to the attitude for a military solution to the conflict in Donbas, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"What kind of 'restrained reaction' and, even more so, 'steps towards a settlement' by the Kiev authorities we can talk about in conditions when weapons and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are actively being drawn to the contact line, and the suburbs of Donetsk are daily attacked with Ukrainian shells and mines, which kill civilians, including children? It is cynical to indulge in Ukrainian myth-making about some myriad Russian troops deployed on the border despite the fact that EU officials, it seems, themselves are confused by the figures provided to them by Kiev in conditions when Brussels not only turns a blind eye to sentiments widespread among the Kiev authorities in favor of a forceful solution to the conflict in the South-East, but also voluntarily or not they support them themselves," Zakharova said in a commentary.

She noted that it was not possible to perceive "phrases periodically heard from the mouth of the EU leadership, addressed to Kiev, like 'We are on your side,'" in any other way.

"Perhaps, instead of reckless support of the Ukrainian authorities, the leadership of European diplomacy should start encouraging Kiev to abandon its aggressive militaristic rhetoric and, finally, faithfully fulfill the commitments undertaken in accordance with the Minsk Package of Measures and the agreements at the Normandy format summits to resolve the conflict. Otherwise, there will be no doubt that it is the European Union, whose position is already virtually indistinguishable from the Ukrainian one, took a quite definite side in the conflict and actively indulges the nationalist policy of the Kiev authorities. Consequently, it bears responsibility for the implications of this policy, including the ongoing large-scale and aggressive infringement of the rights and freedoms of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine, as well as the revival of the 'Neandrathal' ideology of neo-Nazism and right-wing extremism," Zakharova said.