LUGANSK, January 10. /TASS/. The self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic is committed to peace settlement of the situation in Donbass, despite continuous provocations from Kiev, Vladislav Deinego, LPR’s permanent representative at the Minsk talks told TASS on Friday.
“Today, I learnt from the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC) that the Ukrainian side made a breakthrough attempt in the settlement of Luganskaya. A certain number of troops and hardware crossed through the bridge linking territories controlled by the LPR and the Ukrainian army,” he said, adding that the incident had taken place while members of the Contact Group were having a skype conference on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine.
“Right at the moment when issues of how to improve the humanitarian situation in Donbass, how to achieve bilateral ceasefire were raised, right after I informed the Contact Group that not a single violation of the ceasefire regime had been registered in the territory of the LPR, active combat operations began in Luganskaya,” Deinego said.
“It look like they are seeking to stir up tensions around those places Kiev proposed as checkpoints along the contact line,” he noted, adding that Luganskaya was among such places.
“Concurrently, Ukrainian military hardware is reportedly being concentrated near the town of Schastye. Also, it has been reported that a hospital is being moved near the settlement of Makarova. And when a hospital is moved towards the frontline, it means that this line is supposed to be moved forward,” the LPR representative said.
At the same time, he stressed the LPR was “committed to continue the peace dialogue and peace settlement of the situation even if the Ukrainian side is seeking to frustrate this process.”
“We will insist on the continuation of efforts to settle the situation. We will never turn down the Minsk format, despite all Kiev’s provocations,” he underscored.