MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin told UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson about Kiev’s policy geared toward derailing the Minsk agreements, aggravating the situation in Donbass and discriminating against the Russian-speaking population, the Kremlin press service said on Monday after their telephone conversation.
According to the press service, in response to Johnson’s concerns about alleged massive movements of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border, "Putin shared his principled assessment of the current situation around Ukraine."
"He cited concrete examples of Kiev’s destructive policy toward derailing the Minsk agreements, which are the only basis for the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. He also stressed that the Ukrainian authorities are deliberately aggravating the situation along the contact line and using heavy weapons and combat drones in the conflict zone, which are prohibited by the Package of Measures. He drew attention to Ukraine’s policy of discriminating against the Russian-speaking population," it said.
The leaders agreed to continue to discuss the topics they touched upon during the telephone call via various channels, the Kremlin added.
It was Putin’s second telephone call with Johnson in the past two months. Their previous conversation took place on October 25.
Recently, Western countries and Ukraine have been speaking about Russia’s possible aggression against Ukraine. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov slammed such statements as hollow and groundless with the intention of fanning tensions. He stressed that Russia is a threat to no one but did not rule out possible provocations to justify such statements and warned that attempts at using force to settle the crisis in southeastern Ukraine would have the most serious consequences. According to Peskov, Moscow is committed to the Normandy format and the Minsk agreements and spares no effort to help Kiev settle the conflict in Donbass.
