Kyiv calls on intl community to continue putting pressure on Russia

"We are calling on our international partners not to fall for deceitful maneuvers by the Russian aggressor, which regularly demonstrates discrepancy between its rhetoric and real actions. Against this background, political pressure on Russia and the application of diplomatic and sanction instruments is critically important in order to return the Kremlin to the international legal framework," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Despite a new agreement on ceasefire in Donbas, which was achieved within the framework of the Trilateral Contact Group on January 13, the number of acts of provocation against Ukrainian military servicemen along the frontline keeps growing, it said. "The gunmen fired upon the ATO [antiterrorist operation] forces and civilian sites 48 times on January 17, 36 times on January 16, and 40 times on January 15. Apart from small arms, they also used 82mm and 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft systems, and weapons installed on armored fighting vehicles. The attack on the OSCE SMM [Special Monitoring Mission] vehicle on January 16 was especially glaring," it said. The circumstances of these attacks show that they were carefully planned, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. "Not only do they undermine the essence, logic, and timeline of the Minsk agreements, but they also devalue all efforts that Ukraine and the international community are making to restore peace and stability and in fact preclude the implementation of the political part of the peace plan," it said. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry accused Russia of "deliberately disregarding the Minsk agreements and bearing full responsibility for the situation in some districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions." "Because of the Kremlin's purposeful policy of maintaining a hybrid war against Ukraine, we have to declare that, nearly a year after the adoption of the Package of Measures for the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the situation in eastern Ukraine remains extremely fragile and is far from the restoration of peace, security, and viability of the districts that have suffered at the hands of terrorists," the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said.