(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The US on Monday condemned what it called "ongoing and continuous blatant violations of the Minsk protocol" by Moscow and the separatist fighters it is backing.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) has "reported the movement of large military convoys of Russia-supplied heavy weapons and tanks to the frontlines of the conflict in recent days, and greatly intensified shelling around the Donetsk airport and Debaltseve, where separatists appear intent on making territorial gains well beyond the lines agreed in Minsk," said State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki.
She added there are "no excuses" for the provocations.
"We condemn Russia's increased militarization of the Donbas region," Psaki stressed. "If Russia is truly committed to Minsk and peace in Ukraine, it will stop fueling the fire with new weapons and support for separatists and withdraw all Russian military personnel and equipment from Ukraine and it will call on its proxies to stop cease-fire violations, release hostages and close the international border." Echoing comments made by the White House last week, she warned that the "costs to Russia will rise" if they "continue to ignore the commitments" of the protocol signed in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5.
"We also call to your attention to press reports that the Russian government has thrown a blanket of state secrecy over what happened to its paratroopers from Pskov that were killed fighting in Donbas this summer," Psaki said.
"We know that the families of those killed in action may never have the comfort of knowing from their own government what truly happened to their sons, now that their fate has been declared a state secret." According to local reports from the region, the paratroopers were killed on Ukrainian soil.
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