Putin accuses Kiev of silence in response to Moscow's peace proposals

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the Ukrainian government on Friday for being reticent about Russia's proposal for removing heavy weapons from the division line in the war-torn southeast Ukraine.

Speaking to the National Security Council, Putin said that Moscow has proposed that both sides of the Ukrainian conflict withdraw heavy weapons from the line agreed in Minsk last September.

"Unfortunately, we didn't receive any clear response to our proposal but saw the opposite actions," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The president accused Kiev of voicing hypocritical rhetoric about its desire to find peaceful solution to the conflict, which has been raging for more than nine months, claiming more than 5,000 lives.

Blasting the military operations by Ukrainian troops along the division line, he said those who have ordered indiscriminate use of artillery and warplanes on densely populated areas bear full responsibility for the "criminal orders".

"Those who made those orders must know that there is no other way to solve such conflicts except peace talks and political means," Putin said, adding that actions of Kiev contradict those principles. Endi