Ukraine OSCE envoy says ceasefire all but dead: Media reports
Reuters
The ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is all but dead, Ukraine's representative to the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) told Austrian newspaper Die Presse.
The truce, which the OSCE is monitoring, was agreed in the Belarussian capital Minsk on September 5 after weeks of fighting between Ukrainian government forces and separatists.
It was now barely possible to still speak of a ceasefire, Ihor Prokopchuk was quoted as telling the newspaper in an interview.
"Since the Minsk agreement ...we have more than 2,400 breaches of the ceasefire by militant groups. More than 100 Ukrainian soldiers and dozens of civilians have been killed," he said
The truce has been violated daily, and increasingly since the rebels held what the West and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said were illegitimate leadership elections on November 2. The death toll has passed 4,000 since the truce was agreed, with Kievaccusing Moscow of sending more troops into eastern Ukraine last week.
Russia has repeatedly denied that it has sent money or aid to the separatists and denies that it is a party to the conflict.
Prokopchuk said Ukrainian troops had not broken the ceasefire. "All Ukrainian troops have been given the order to adhere to the ceasefire. But when they are being attacked, they react."
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