Kiev Calls for Real Truce, Not 'Hybrid Ceasefire'
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin stressed Thursday the need for a real ceasefire for eastern Ukraine, and not just the "hybrid" version currently in tatters.
"What we need is not just a hybrid ceasefire (for) the hybrid war. What we need is a real bilateral ceasefire," Klimkin told reporters at the start of a meeting of some 50 foreign ministers from Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe countries.
The 57-member organisation is charged with monitoring a shattered ceasefire between the Ukrainian army and separatist Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine reached on September 5.
The overall ceasefire has failed to fully stop fighting in a conflict that has left some 4,300 people dead, and a long-awaited local truce around the flashpoint Donetsk airport appeared to crumble Wednesday just hours after it was signed.
"It is not a Ukrainian crisis, it is not an OSCE crisis, it is about Russian aggression," said Klimkin.
To reach a lasting peace, he said, it was vital to cancel the results of elections" held by pro-Russian separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in early November, not recognised by Ukraine or the West.
"We need to restore law and order (and) of course we need a political process, a real political process," he said.
Klimkin stressed that Kiev was "fully committed to peace", insisting on the need to "stop suffering of the people on the ground," where he said temperatures had fallen to 15 degrees Celsius below freezing.
Source: Agence France Presse
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