VIENNA, April 14. /TASS/: The OSCE member-countries should force Kiev to give up plans for a "bloody and suicidal adventure" in Donbass, an advisor to the Russian delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control Yulia Zhdanova said at an urgent joint meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Cooperation and the OSCE Permanent Council.
The OSCE member-countries are holding an OSCE meeting at Ukraine’s request to discuss what they claim is unusual military activity on the Russia-Ukraine border. The Russian delegation opposed the idea of adopting any resolutions or recommendations at the OSCE meeting.
"If the OSCE member-states really wish to prevent an escalation of tensions not just verbally, but with reaction, they should not be urging Russia to ‘curtail a military buildup’ in its own territory (in fact, there is none!), but force Kiev to give up warmongering rhetoric and refrain from a bloody and suicidal adventure (in Donbass - TASS)," Zhdanova said in a statement obtained by TASS.
"Russia is for a peace settlement of the intra-Ukrainian conflict through Kiev’s direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk on the basis of strict observance of the Minsk Accords in their entirety, with the sequence of steps strictly observed. We call upon all others to follow suit. We will do our utmost to restore peace to Donbass and protect its civilian population," the Russian diplomat stressed.
Western countries in recent days repeatedly voiced concern over the Ukrainian military’s speculations about a Russian buildup along the border with Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier the movement of Russian troops inside Russian territory should not worry other countries because it did not threaten them in any way whatsoever. Also, he stressed that the events in Donbass were an intra-Ukrainian conflict in which Russian forces had never been involved.
The situation in Donbass exacerbated at the end of February, with exchanges of gunfire, including those involving mortars and grenade launchers, registered every day. The warring parties blamed each other for the surge in tensions.
