Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is ready to mediate in the Ukraine crisis and denied Russians killed there have been members of his country’s military.
Western powers accuse Russia of sending troops and equipment to help separatists in eastern Ukraine in their fight against Ukrainian government forces.
In April, violence broke out in two Ukrainian regions that border Russia — Donetsk and Luhansk — as separatist leaders declared independence from the government in Kiev. Moscow has voiced moral support for the rebels and sent aid convoys into the region, but it has repeatedly denied military involvement.
In his end of year media conference, Putin said there had been “a state coup and a military coup” in Ukraine that parts of the country had not agreed with.
He repeated the long-standing Russian line that any Russians killed in Ukraine had been volunteers.
Putin said he hoped the situation would still be solved through dialogue rather than military means or economic blockades that were “harmful to the state of Ukraine, the people of Ukraine.” “The Ukraine crisis must be solved, and the quicker the better,” he said.
A ceasefire deal was agreed upon September 5 in Minsk, Belarus, following talks between representatives of Ukraine’s government, Russia and rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine. A subsequent agreement September 19 in Minsk set out more measures.
But fighting in Ukraine has since resumed, with a British security official last month telling CNN that levels of fighting had returned to levels that preceded the ceasefire.
“(Ukraine’s) President Poroshenko is striving towards a settlement of the Minsk agreement,” Putin said. “Our representatives in Minsk signed a memorandum and the representatives of Donetsk did not sign that protocol — that is what it’s about,” he said.
“The Ukrainian officials are not removing their troops from the Donetsk airport they are sitting there,” Putin told reporters.
“The next step should be following up the Minsk agreement — it is important that the Kiev authorities use all these agreements,” he said.
“But he also said that if Ukraine wanted to restore its territorial integrity, “it has to be open and honest.”