Russia accuses Kiev of not implementing Minsk agreements and commits ‘atrocities’ in eastern Ukraine

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Versinin today accused Ukraine in a speech to the UN Security Council of not implementing the 2015 Minsk agreements, without extending to Western warnings of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine. described as “conjecture”.

“Do not be blind,” Versinin told his interlocutors, devoting all his intervention to the Minsk agreements, which have as their ultimate goal the pacification of the separatist provinces of eastern Ukraine.

Russia is “not interested” in the conflict between the Ukrainian government and the separatists, the Russian deputy minister assured, rereading the points of the Minsk agreements. “There is no solution other than the implementation of this document,” he said, adding that he regretted that the Ukrainian authorities had not entered into a dialogue with the separatists, as provided for in the agreements.

In a very measured manner, the Russian official spoke of the “atrocities” committed in eastern Ukraine, but did not characterize them as war crimes or genocide.

During Versinin’s speech, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UN Sergei Kislytsia ostentatiously picked up his mobile phone to speak.

Russia and Ukraine have been arguing for years that they are not implementing the Minsk agreements, which they reached through the mediation of France and Germany.

Today’s meeting of the Security Council, chaired by Russia, has been scheduled for some time. The United States and Britain have decided at the last minute to participate in the ministerial level, due to the crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ