Kremlin ignores requests for Zelensky's telephone conversation with Putin for two weeks - OPU
For more than two weeks, Russia has not responded to Ukraine's request to hold a telephone conversation between the two leaders to discuss the escalation of the conflict in Donbas.
The spokeswoman of Ukrainian president Yulia Mendel informed Suspilne about it.
"After 26 of March, when four Ukrainian servicemen were killed at the front, the Office of President Vladimir Zelensky asked the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate with him. We were hoping for a phone call, but we haven't received any answers yet. We very much hope that this is not a sign that Moscow is abandoning dialogue", - Mendel said.
The situation in the war zone in Donbas has deteriorated since the beginning of March 2021. Thus, on the 3rd of March, militants of the self-proclaimed "DPR" stated that they had received permission to use "preemptive fire for destruction" on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The head of the Ukrainian delegation of the Tripartite Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in Donbas, Leonid Kravchuk, called such statements a breach of the Minsk agreements.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, stated that the shelling at the front intensified after the decisions of the National Security and Defense Council on sanctions for terrorist financing.
What is known
- On 26 March, four Ukrainian servicemen were killed near Shumy in the Donetsk region, after which President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the leaders of the "Quartet of Normandy" and called on them to do everything possible to maintain a comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas.
- French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks by video conference on the situation in Donbas. Zelensky was not invited to this discussion. The press service of the Office of the Ukrainian President told to the Suspilne News Channel that no decisions about Ukraine can be made without its participation. And the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak told to the Suspilne News Channel that the meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, France and Germany may take place in the near future.
- On the 1st of April, 2021, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was announced that Russia was preparing provocations and expanding its military presence in the occupied territory of Donbas. On the same day, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president, said that Russia was transferring troops to the borders because "NATO activity was increased along the perimeter." The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba informed the OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid "about the systemic aggravation of the security situation in Russia in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and in Crimea".
