South-east of Ukraine must escape the information vacuum

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Yesterday, the Ukrainian parliament appealed to the UN Security Council and the Council of the European Union with a request for the introduction of peacekeepers to Ukraine. Commenting on the request, the spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that it could be discussed. "Now it is important to follow the path of agreements of Minsk-2 and not to do anything that might disrupt this process ... [the introduction of peacekeepers] is possible, with the consent of both parties of the conflict, meaning that it needs to be discussed in Ukraine - with Donbas, with Kiev ... right now, the UN Security Council is not considering this question. Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Peskov is quoted by ITAR-TASS.

Meanwhile, according to State Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlev, the army of Ukraine is now developing its capacity near the Donbas, and they do not want to comply with any Minsk agreements. The militias have completed these arrangements, as witnessed by the OSCE. But as soon as the OSCE testified that the militias had completed everything, the United States, together with Ukraine, blocked the expansion of the mission."

This, according to Zhuravlev, indicates that "it will not end in peace there, but we, of course, for our part, must do everything to force Ukraine to comply with these agreements. I think that, in any case, our authority in the world is growing. We are doing the right thing. Anything that our Public Chamber does should be supported and displayed at an international level, to tell what happens, to invite them to Debaltseve, in the Luhansk region – let them see it themselves. "

According to the Russian deputy, to the south-east of Ukraine are coming "more and more people to there, there are many western journalists. They are still not allowed to cover this, but at least they have started to come. Before, there were none. Therefore, efforts in this direction must continue."

Meanwhile, the issue of extending the Western sanctions against Moscow depends on the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The EU cannot reach a consensus on extending the six months of economic sanctions, which expire in July. According to unconfirmed reports, countries for the extension of the restrictions imposed on the energy, financial and defense sectors of the Russian economy, are the United Kingdom, the Nordic countries and the Baltic republics - against France, Italy and Spain.