Putin Calls on Kiev To Talk with the Leaders of the Donbas Republics

Russian President Vladimir Putin said today after talks in Moscow with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, that Kiev needs to sit down with the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and the sooner it happens, the better, as required in the Minsk agreements. “The Belarusian President and I have ascertained that the key to restoring civil peace in Ukraine and to relieving tensions around that country is the implementation of the Minsk agreements. All Kiev has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with representatives of Donbas and agree on political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end this conflict,” he said, reported the Kremlin website. “Regrettably, right now we are watching, on the contrary, an escalation in Donbas,” the Russian President said. (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/67809)