Putin accuses Ukraine of provoking armed conflict with pro-Russia seperatists

President Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of provoking armed confrontation with pro-Russian separatists and failing to honour earlier agreements over its wartorn east, the Kremlin said in a readout of a telephone call with France and Germany’s leaders.

The comments during a call late on Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel came shortly after Ukraine’s commander-in-chief accused Russia of a military buildup near Ukraine’s borders.

The Ukrainian army chief also said that pro-Moscow separatists were systematically violating a ceasefire in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Tensions have flared in a conflict that has killed 14,000 people since it erupted in 2014, according to Ukraine.

Kiev and Moscow have blamed each other for a recent spate of violence.

In the Kremlin’s readout of the call, Mr Putin placed the blame on Ukraine and urged Kiev to enter into direct dialogue with local separatist forces.

“The Russian side expressed serious concern over the escalation of armed confrontation that is being provoked by Ukraine along the line of contact and its effective refusal to implement the agreements of July 2020... to strengthen the ceasefire regime,” the Kremlin said.

Germany, Russia and France are part of the Normandy format that also includes Ukraine and that was set up in 2014 to try to resolve the conflict.

Mr Putin, Ms Merkel and Mr Macron also discussed the prospects for registering Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 in the European Union, as well as Libya, Syria, the Iran nuclear deal, the Kremlin said.

Mr Putin also answered questions about jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny, it added.

Mr Navalny has lost a substantial amount of weight in custody, his organization said Thursday, a day after the well-known government critic called a hunger strike to protest what he called poor medical care.

A post on Mr Navalny’s channel in the Telegram messaging app said he weighed 93 kilograms (204 pounds) when he arrived at the prison last month and now is at 85 kilograms (187 pounds).

The statement said he blames the weight loss primarily on a harsh prison regime in which he is awakened eight times every night.

Mr Navalny also is complaining of severe back pains that have spread to one leg and says his other leg is numb. Prison authorities have not provided proper medicine or allowed his doctor to visit him, he said Wednesday when announcing he was going on a hunger strike.

The 44-year-old Navalny, Vladimir Putin’s most outspoken domestic opponent, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.

Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.

Last month, Mr Navalny was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for violating the terms of his probation during his convalescence in Germany.

The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Mr Navalny has rejected as fabricated — and which the European Сourt of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful.

Navalny was moved this month from a Moscow jail to a penal colony in the Vladimir region. 

Irish Independent