Ukraine’s acting president says Kiev is ready to launch the final stage of the military operation to clear eastern Ukraine of protesters.
Aleksandr Turchynov’s remarks came against the backdrop of the Ukrainian parliament’s call for immediate troop withdrawal.
“We have just held a meeting with [national] security forces, we are ready for a final stage… We are ready to mop up Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” said Turchynov.
He ordered security forces to “restore peace and calmness in the Donetsk and Luhansk,” claiming that people have started realizing that pro-Russian activists “are leading the region into the abyss.”
A day before Turchynov’s rhetoric, Ukraine’s parliament Verkhovnaya Rada adopted the “Memorandum of Peace and Consent.”
The Ukrainian parliament called on Ukraine to stop its military operation in the southeast and “return the soldiers … to their places of permanent deployment.”
Turchynov launched military operations in southeastern Ukraine in mid-April in a bid to root out pro-Russia demonstrations.
Nine Ukrainian troops have been killed during clashes with pro-Russia protesters near Donetsk.
On May 12, Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence following local referendums in which the regions’ residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Kiev.
The referendums followed a similar vote in Crimea in March that led to the reunification of the peninsula with the Russian Federation. Nearly 97 percent of participants in Crimea’s referendum voted for rejoining Russia.
According to a high-ranking UN official, nearly 130 people have been killed in a recent surge of violence in southern and eastern parts of Ukraine.
KA/HSN
Source Article from http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/05/22/363716/kiev-ready-for-final-stage-of-operation/
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