13:23 13.06.2014

Ukrainian interior minister blames 'militia' for ceasefire talks' failure

2 min read
Ukrainian interior minister blames 'militia' for ceasefire talks' failure

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has blamed "militia" for the ceasefire talks' failure.

"Indeed, Pushylin [head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic] asked me for the [evacuation] corridor. Indeed, after the appeal was made we suspended all operations at night to coordinate a procedure of the departure of civilians. But militants attacked our units in Artemivsk, attacked our roadblocks at night," Avakov told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday, commenting on Pushylin's statement.

"It was nothing but a conversation, which showed we should hardly discuss anything with the self-proclaimed puppet leaders," the minister said.

Ceasefire negotiations with Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov have been held in vain, head of the Supreme Council of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Denys Pushylin said on Friday morning.

"We held ceasefire negotiations with Arsen Avakov last Sunday. We agreed to cease fire and coordinated that issue. We were supposed to discuss the opening of a humanitarian corridor in Sloviansk after that," Pushylin told Interfax.

"Arsen Avakov sent me a text message to confirm the ceasefire order and on that very night the town of Sloviansk was put under intensive heavy gun fire. They never opened the humanitarian corridor. The National Guard was firing on buses of departing civilians," he said.

Pushylin said it would make no sense to continue the negotiations after the Ukrainian side had failed to meet the terms of the agreement.

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