Ukrainian Troops Try To Disrupt New Donbas Ceasefire By Attacking Local Militia - Moscow

Ukrainian troops are seeking to destabilize the situation in Donbas by provoking local militia to retaliate with the aim of disrupting the ceasefire, and accusing Donetsk and Luhansk of failing to secure peace, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2019) Ukrainian troops are seeking to destabilize the situation in Donbas by provoking local militia to retaliate with the aim of disrupting the ceasefire, and accusing Donetsk and Luhansk of failing to secure peace, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

The most recent ceasefire in eastern Ukraine came into force just past midnight on July 21 (21:00 GMT the previous day), but both sides still frequently report violations.

"Over the past week, shelling activity by the Ukrainian armed forces has significantly increased despite the ceasefire, although everyone expected the opposite. A possible goal of [Ukraine in] destabilizing the situation is to attempt to provoke retaliation by militia and once again blame a ceasefire collapse on Donetsk and Luhansk," Zakharova said at a briefing.

According to her, attacks on civilian infrastructure have been even more intense than before the ceasefire was announced.

Zakharova, in particular, mentioned a school in Horlivka in the Donetsk region that had been repeatedly shelled by the Ukrainian military, affirming that such attacks were "not a myth, not fake, not a fraud."

"If Ukrainian President [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] is so concerned about the situation in Donbas, as he said at an emergency briefing on August 7, why has he so far failed to demand a probe from his security officials," she concluded.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk people's republics, which proclaimed independence after what they considered a coup in Ukraine two months earlier.

Since September 2014, peace in the region has been mediated by the Minsk Contact Group, which was created after the Normandy format talks. Despite the fact that several documents on de-escalation measures have been adopted over this time, the warring parties continue to violate the ceasefire.