Volker compares the situation in Eastern Ukraine to the annexation of Crimea
Special representative of the U.S. State Department for Ukraine Kurt Volker compared the situation in eastern Ukraine with the annexed Crimea and called it “a state to state conflict.”
“In the case of Ukraine, what we see here is not an ethnic conflict, it’s not an indigenous conflict that grew up internally, it’s not a civil war, it’s not a conflict between Russians and Ukrainians ethnically. It is a State to State conflict. It is a conflict in which Russia has put its forces onto the territory of Ukraine. It has been accused of annexing Crimea – an illegal annexation that I think no one among the States here recognizes. And it has done something similar in eastern Ukraine,” Volker said at a special session on Ukraine which took place at the annual OSCE conference on June 26.
Volker noted that to solve this problem, the U.S. proposes, in cooperation with France, Germany, Ukraine and other countries, to deploy UN peacekeeping forces to create a secure situation in the Donbas and ensure that the conditions of the Minsk agreements can be implemented.
The armed conflict in the Donbas has continued since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of providing armed support to the separatists. The Kremlin denies these accusations and claims that only Russian “volunteers” can be in the Donbas. According to the UN, more than 10,000 people have died in the conflict.