17:56 26.06.2014

Kuchma calls for swift arrival of Russian monitors to Donbas

2 min read
Kuchma calls for swift arrival of Russian monitors to Donbas

Ukraine's second president Leonid Kuchma has said that observers must urgently arrive to the Donbas region as was agreed earlier at consultations between members of the contact group.

"Unless we urgently ensure monitoring there, by observers from the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe), Russia and so on, each side will be blaming the other, and nothing will come out of it," he told journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.

Kuchma added: "If we don't resolve the border issue today, if they do not give us back those three points (checkpoints) they seized after Poroshenko signed the decree … then this issue will have to be resolved militarily."

"But the 28th is a deadline from which Ukraine, primarily its president, cannot walk away. No one is going to play a blind man's buff with them," he said.

Asked what will be the next stage in settling the situation in Donbas once the ceasefire expires, the second president said: "To make sure there is truce. Failing which, it will be like I said before - we will have to use force."

Ukrainian power must be installed in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Kuchma also stressed.

At the same time, it is reasonable to invite to the talks the same people from the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR who attended consultations of the Ukraine-Russia-OSCE contact group, because it is mainly them who control Donbas.

Asked whether consultations can be held with the DPR and LPR representatives involved in them, Kuchma said: "And there are no other people. Donbas is largely under them (their control)."

During a trip to Donbas on June 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered government forces to cease fire for a week to enable militiamen to surrender weapons. The order was issued to the Armed Forces, National Guard and State Border Guard Service for the duration of one week, from June 20 to 27.

On June 23 the Donetsk regional state administration hosted multilateral consultations attended by Kuchma, Personal Representative to the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Heidi Tagliavini, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov, as well as Ukrainian Choice public organization leader Viktor Medvedchuk, DPR prime minister Alexander Borodai, South-East movement leader Oleh Tsariov and representatives from the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.

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