Ukraine peace negotiations cancelled in Minsk: Belarus
Iran Press TV
Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:45PM GMT
Belarus has announced that a new round of talks between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russia militia forces in Minsk over a stable ceasefire in violence-scarred eastern Ukraine has been scrapped.
"There will be no contact group meeting today," Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Dmitry Mironchik, whose country hosts the peace talks, said on Friday.
The so-called Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine also included negotiators from Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
On Wednesday, a preliminary meeting between the Ukrainian officials and pro-Russia militiamen concluded in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, during which the two sides reached an agreement on a prisoner swap.
Ukrainian security services announced on Thursday that they have agreed to exchange 150 government troops with 225 pro-Russia gunmen.
The leader of Ukraine's self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic has warned that fighting will continue in eastern Ukraine if peace talks in Belarus fail to bear fruit.
Alexander Zakharchenkov asserted on Thursday that the Kiev authorities were preparing to wreck the negotiations in Mink, and start a full-scale military offensive in the east of Ukraine.
A ceasefire agreement was signed between Kiev and the pro-Russians in Minsk on September 5, after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hammered out a compromise deal aimed at ending the heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine. The ceasefire entered into effect immediately.
However, the Ukrainian military and pro-Russians have repeatedly accused each other of violating the ceasefire.
The two mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev started military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests.
Violence intensified in May after the two flashpoint regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine and re-joining the Russian Federation.
The West accuses Moscow of supporting the pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia has strongly denied the allegation.
MP/MKA/KA
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