MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed republics of the Donbas region have set up proper armies, the Donetsk People's Republic's (DPR) leader Denis Pushilin said on Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) television on Tuesday.
"What both we [DPR] and the LPR [Luhansk People's Republic] already have today are not disparate groups of militiamen, but proper armies," Pushilin said.
The situation on the Donbas contact line remains restive, he said. "To this day there is trouble on the contact line, shells exploding. Kyiv finds it convenient to ascribe everything to war. The removal of equipment at some stages helped improve the situation. However, we have been registering continual movements of military hardware from the Ukrainian side, we are seeing masses of equipment. As was the case, for example, before the [2018] World Cup. The occasional periods of escalation show that we must be prepared for any scenario," Pushilin said.
There is no alternative to the Minsk Agreements for the resolution of the conflict, he said. "Even after four years, the provisions of the Minsk Agreements remain relevant and the only roadmap for a peaceful settlement. These agreements stopped the hot phase of hostilities, and the republics got a chance to focus on other issues: first, providing citizens with essentials; next, embarking on the path of development. All this would have been well, had Ukraine started honoring its obligations in 2014. But Ukraine never fulfilled any of them properly. Through its actions, Kyiv has caused Donbas to move very far away," Pushilin said.