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Kiev remains committed to peaceful settlement of conflict: deputy defense minister

Xinhua, August 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kiev remains committed to a peaceful settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine despite a recent escalation of tensions, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Igor Dolgov said here Monday.

"The actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are aimed at a strict adherence to the Minsk agreement and at the fulfillment of Ukraine's commitments," Dolgov said during his meeting with Ertugrul Apakan, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

Kiev attaches great importance to its cooperation with the OSCE in settling the situation in the eastern region, Dolgov said, stressing that a political solution is the only way out of the crisis.

The 28-month-old conflict between government troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine escalated last week, with the conflicting parties reporting an increase in the number of attacks. The OSCE said its monitors observed a presence of heavy weapons, which are banned by the Minsk ceasefire deal, on both sides of the contact line.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he is ready to impose a martial law in the country and declare military mobilization if the crisis deepens further.

The Minsk agreement, signed in September 2014 and renewed in February 2015 in the Belarussian capital, is aimed at peacefully settling the conflict that has claimed more than 9,500 lives so far. Endi