Russia is now preparing an offensive in order to create a land corridor through mainland Ukraine to the Russian-occupied Crimea, according to Deputy Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Mykhailo Koval who addressed the participants of the meeting of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Seimas of Lithuania and the Sejm and the Senate of the Republic of Poland, an UNIAN correspondent reported.
Koval noted that ”Russia violates the provisions of the Minsk agreements, and does not intend to comply with them.”
”The Russian troops are preparing for the resumption of active offensive operations in order to advance to the administrative border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as penetrate the land corridor to Crimea,” said Koval.
He emphasized that international sanctions against Russia ”are effective, but not enough to force Russia to abandon the plans of aggression against Ukraine.”
Koval stressed that Ukraine initiated the introduction to the occupied areas of Donbas of the OSCE`s armed police mission.
”We are categorically against cooperation of this mission with so-called local security forces,” he stressed.
According to Koval, the task of the mission should be, in particular, the creation of a security zone along the border and to ensure full access of the Joint OSCE monitoring mission to all of its sites, access to the uncontrolled territories, as well as monitoring of the withdrawal of Russian troops and arms from the territory of Ukraine, and after this – of the elections in the temporarily occupied territory.
See also: Russian command actively prepares for invasion on the coast near Mariupol – Ukraine Intelligence
Russian aggression against Ukraine, international law and global security: 25 key theses
