Kyiv has accused pro-Russian separatists of jeopardizing Ukraine’s fragile peace process by intensifying attacks on government troops, despite a nine-day old cease-fire.
National Security and Defense Council spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy made the accusations on September 14, a day after Ukraine’s military said it repelled a separatist attack on Donetsk airport.
Polyovy’s remarks also come a day after Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called on world leaders not to trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the Kremlin wants to “eliminate” Ukraine as an independent country.
Yatsenyuk said Putin is deliberately trying to keep Ukraine in a state of war to create “another frozen conflict” as part of a long-term strategy to “restore the Soviet Union.”
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says more international monitors and drone observation aircraft will be deployed in eastern Ukraine to monitor the skaky cease-fire.
