(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The US expressed concern over attacks on Wednesday by Russian-separatists in Ukraine and a separate attack in Chechnya, Russia against a NGO committee, State Department Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications Marie Harf told reporters.
In Ukraine, Harf highlighted reports from the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that Russian-separatists forces launched coordinated attacks overnight against Ukrainian positions near Donetsk, Kempinski, Luhansk, and Marinka.
"We are now seeing reports that the town of Marinka may have fallen," Harf asserted.
"Any new attack or aggressive action by combined Russian- separatist forces is unacceptable and contravenes the Minsk agreement," Harf insisted. "Any attempts to seize additional Ukrainian territory will be met with increased costs." In Russia, Harf noted that the US is, "troubled by the violent ransacking and attacks today at the offices of the NGO Committee Against Torture in Grozny, Chechnya." She said, "It is our understanding that a crowd of nearly 3,000 people protested outside the office, broke into the building, and destroyed property, while police failed to respond. This follows the burning of the previous Committee Against Torture office space in Grozny last December." The US called on the Russian authorities to hold those involved in these attacks responsible and protect civil society groups.
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