DONETSK, August 9. /TASS/: The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is prepared to provide tit-for-tat response to the Ukrainian armed forces' aggression if ceasefire violations in the Donbass region persist, DPR head Denis Pushilin said on Friday.
"Despite the agreements reached with the participation of Kiev’s envoys, 120mm shells were fired at the settlement of Kominternovo. [The Ukrainian army] used grenade launchers and small arms and shelled the center of the settlement with infantry fighting vehicles. If the Kiev authorities continue to break its promises, a tit-for-tat response will be provided to their actions," the Donetsk News Agency quotes Pushilin as saying.
He also called on observers working in the conflict zone to intervene without delay to ensure Ukraine honors its obligations.
"We do not give in to provocations. The Kiev authorities have shown once again their inability to negotiate and their lack of desire to maintain a peaceful dialogue," Pushilin said in a statement on the situation in the Donbass region.
On July 17, members of the Contact Group on the settlement in eastern Ukraine declared an indefinite ceasefire in Donbass starting on July 21. The agreement, in particular, includes the parties’ obligations to take additional measures to ensure the truce, and that is what the Donbass republics had called for. However, the Ukrainian army violated the new ceasefire on the very first day, shelling the Novaya Tavriya inhabited community located in the south of the DPR.
