Yatsenyuk: Russia fails to heed ceasefire

KYIV – Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a government meeting on April 15 in Kyiv that he was “deeply frustrated” that Russia is “failing to implement the Minsk agreements.” He said “it looks like only Ukraine” is adhering to the ceasefire agreement, adding that Ukrainian forces are suffering losses after a period of no casualties and “we have the shelling again.” Mr. Yatsenyuk told Cabinet members that Kyiv was willing to implement all of the aspects of the Minsk peace agreement, including the holding of “fair and transparent” elections in the rebel-held areas of the Donbas region. He said Ukraine will use all means to “struggle for peace,” including by improving the military’s combat capability. Meanwhile, representatives of the separatists criticized Ukraine for refusing to have direct dialogue with the self-declared leaders of the rebel groups that control parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in a television interview late on April 14 that Kyiv would only initiate such a dialogue after free and fair elections under Ukrainian law are held in the separatist-held areas. He added that the current leaders are illegitimate because neither Ukraine nor the international community recognize the November 2, 2014, elections held by the separatists. But Denis Pushilin, a Donetsk separatist leader, said Kyiv’s refusal to talk to rebel representatives contradicted the Minsk agreement. Meanwhile, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Russia has concentrated troops near the Ukrainian border in an area north of the rebel-held city of Luhansk, at Veydelevka, near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. He said there are some 50 units of armored equipment and around 2,000 troops just 20 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. (RFE/RL, with reporting by the BBC, Deutsche Presse-Agentur and Reuters)