DONETSK. March 24 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has said that Kyiv has devised, and is implementing, a scenario aimed at annulling the Minsk agreements.
"The Ukrainian president's security advisor Volodymyr Horbulyn has developed a scenario that has events taking place along the contact line. ...The main purpose of the scenario is to annul the Minsk agreements, and instead offer a plan of their own, which will lead to even greater bloodshed at the heart of Europe," DPR defense representative Eduard Basurin told reporters.
"The scenario involves bothersome shelling of the DPR territory, a tighter economic and social blockade of the territory not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, and a forceful takeover of the republic," Basurin said.
"This scenario was fully taken onboard by the Ukrainian military-political leadership and is being implemented with precision, causing more civilian suffering and more military casualties," he said.
According to DPR intelligence agents, there has been an increase in Ukrainian provocations, especially since the departure of the OSCE monitoring mission's deputy head Alexander Hug, Basurin said. "In particular, the situation escalated near the Yasynuvata roadblock," he said.
"[DPR] intelligence agents spotted a commission from the Donetsk operational-tactical grouping arriving to check units in the ATO [anti-terror operation] zone after reports of understated casualties among Ukrainian commanders and crimes against local residents," Basurin said. The commission will visit the villages of Vodiane and Avdiivka controlled by the Ukrainian forces, he said. "Military servicemen are plotting a terrorist attack against members of the commission in order to conceal the evidence of their crimes," Basurin said.
He also said, citing intelligence reports, that a Ukrainian officer was injured in a skirmish between members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and foreign mercenaries (natives of Georgia). "This fact is being carefully concealed from the higher-ranking command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the DPR representative said.