‘Blame rests with USA’: Putin wants Kyiv to stop actions in Donbas, urges to change constitutional form

09.02.201506:56

To put an end to mounting crisis in Ukraine Kyiv should stop its military operation in Donbas and abandong attempts to ‘block Donbas economically’, Vladimir Putin told in an interview to the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram shortly before his visit to Cairo.

In the course of the interview the Russian leader sent a clear message that he wants the neighbouring country ‘to work out such a form of constitutional arrangement that would suit all Ukrainians’.

“To achieve this, Kyiv authorities need to listen to their people, find a common language and reach an agreement with all political forces and regions of the country. They need to elaborate such constitutional state system formula that would provide for a safe and comfortable living for all citizens with human rights being fully observed,” he said.

Furthermore, Vladimir Putin stressed that Russia bears o responsibility for stirring the armed conflicting the territory of Ukraine. According to him, the USA and their Western allies are to blame.

“Last February the USA and a number of EU member states supported the coup d’etat in Kiev. The ultranationalists who seized the power using military force put the country on the edge of disruption and started the fratricidal war,” state-run news agency TASS cites him.

Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian authorities to start direct negotiations with separatists saying Russia is ready to provide its support to the process.

Putin accused Ukrainian security forces of bombing of Donetsk, Luhansk and other residential areas in the region.

“The ‘new wave’ of mass mobilisation has been announced in the country; there are calls for ‘taking revenge after summer ‘military failures’ and for a forceful ‘Ukrainisation of Donbas’,” he said.

Meanwhile, mobilisation is to start today in the districts controlled by pro-Russian militants. The leaders of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people republics promise it will be run on a voluntary basis.

On Wednesday Minsk is to host the meeting of leaders of Ukraine, Germany, France and Russia. Last Thursday German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met with Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, which was followed by their talk to Russia’s Putin on Friday. The leaders were discussing peace initiatives, but no detail was revealed to journalists. Hollande only told French television they believed a demilitarised zone over 100 kilometres wide was required in east Ukraine. He suggested that the buffer zone would be 50-70 kilometres wide on both the Ukrainian and Russian-occupied sides of the contact line. Their peace plan also provided broad powers of autonomy for the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.