Petro Poroshenko calls for fulfilment of peace deal but promises to defend country “to the last drop of blood”
By Tom Parfitt, Moscow and Justin Huggler
Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, has condemned what he called a “pseudo-peace” in his government’s conflict with pro-Russian rebels, saying that the country “loses heroes every day”.
A ceasefire was agreed between Mr Poroshenko’s forces and the Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in Minsk, Belarus, in February but there have been numerous violations, including multiple incidents of shelling.
Speaking in a television interview in Germany during a visit for talks with Angela Merkel, its chancellor, the Ukrainian leader accused Russia of sending weapons across the countries’ mutual border and claimed there were 11,000 Russian troops on Ukrainian soil.
“Unfortunately the entire world has seen in Donetsk and Luhansk the modern weapon technology from Russia on the streets in the buffer zone,” he said. “These weapons are prohibited by the Minsk agreement.”
Mr Poroshenko said 300 Ukrainian fighters had died since the ceasefire was signed on February 12. “We’ve paid a big price for this pseudo-peace,” he added. The rebels also say that Ukrainian forces are failing to abide by the ceasefire, causing military and civilian casualties.
Flare-ups of fighting have been noted especially in Shyrokyne, a village on the coast of the Sea of Azov, not far from the large Ukrainian-held port of Mariupol.
Mr Poroshenko said the separatists were “obviously” threatening to advance on Mariupol as a means of creating a land corridor to Crimea along the coast.
The Ukrainian leader played down controversial comments that he made on Monday to a group of “Cyborgs”, as veterans of the battle at Donetsk airport are called. He told them that Ukraine would seize the airport back from rebels who now control it.
“I am a president of peace and we are supporters of the Minsk agreement,” he told the ZDF channel in an interview aired on Wednesday evening. “We have definitely respected the ceasefire, and as signatories have withdrawn the weapons.
“We see no military solution to the conflict. We will get peace only through the reintegration of the occupied areas, through peaceful talks and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.”
However, he signalled that his forces would react to any new aggression, saying that “our first priority is defence”.
“We will not allow anyone to come and conquer us with arms,” he added. “We will fight for our country to the last drop of blood. This is our soil, this is our fatherland.”
The Minsk peace deal was brokered with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader, by Mrs Merkel and François Hollande, the president of France.
Mr Hollande said on Thursday that he had spoken to Mr Poroshenko about the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“There are ceasefire violations today and that’s unacceptable,” he told reporters, adding that “there is a risk of fresh unrest and we need to warn them of that”.
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